Grizzly Bear...sumptuous, modern, psychadelic

Grizzly Bear's 2009 release Veckatimest (Warp Records) has been widely nominated as one of the best albums of the year, and I'm not about to argue.

Commonly classified as 'psychadelic pop', theirs is a richly layered, indie-does-baroque sound, a sort of Gershwin reincarnated for the 21st century . The songs on this album sound as though you've arrived embarassingly late for an alternative-universe broadway musical, and you've foolishly missed the bit at the beginning that explains what it's all about. The melody is a strong thread, weaving it's way steadily through the music, while around it there's a focused intensity to the orchestration - sometimes bordering on the operatic, or elsewhere pounding dramatically along like a reinvented prog-rock for the metrosexual age. 

With such well developed work it's difficult to identify sources and influences, but to my ear they're perhaps drawing on the visionary late 70's prog-rock wave from the likes of Pink Floyd, Genesis... Queen... Supertramp... More latterly, in places they can be dreamy like Sigur Ros, naturalistic like Wilco, or experimental like Animal Collective... as you might imagine, they're a fascinatingly "now" hybrid, and the breadth of the soundscape suggests a maturity in their collective artistic lifecycle. Quotes from the band point at fullly collaborative writing, and this is evidenced in the kaleidoscope of ideas. For direct familial likeness they're possibly closest to the Flaming Lips, but leaving off the sci-fi weirdness and surreal humour.

Thus, opener "Southern Point" begins with a jazzy swing, using double bass and accoustic guitar before the chorus bursts into a widescreen fuzzed out romp. "Two Weeks" - recalling somehow the charming, strange, pop experiments of Brian Wilson, has ringing piano chords and vocal harmonies underpinned by a marching snare, perhaps the only track on the album that could plausibly find itself tagged a pop-single.

The album's momentum builds theatrically from the intital, catchy yet complex pop variations, then slows up for a breather in the middle with the ethereal folk of "Dory", before rallying again with the likeable, summer-tinged and shimmering "Ready, Able", and the carefree, cart-wheeling "About Face".

The dissonant "While You Wait For The Others" raises the intensity before a stunning climax is reached in the penultimate "I Live With You", the song rising, falling, teetering, crashing and overflowing with a violent, dramatic tension. The piano-led, dystopian closer "Foreground" is a poignant, bittersweet catharsis.

The song structures, and the confident, easy changes of tone and pace show a real depth and vision in the songwriting. But the enormous richness in the production comes through the orchestral use of a string section and choral arrangements. There is throughout a constantly varying use of rhythm, constrained everywhere to be strictly in step with music and rarely if ever dropping into simple 16-bar rock. This shifts the music out to the edges of what could be called rock or pop, allowing melodies and harmonies ample time and space, and connecting to the listener directly on an emotional level.

A timeless masterpiece in it's own right, and another gem from the frankly amazing, subversively inventive Warp Records.

Two weeks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjecYugTbIQ

Album download available on emusic.com