Shields

Rolling Stone (p.74) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "With SHIELDS, they still sound like Radiohead at a Buddhist retreat, but the songs are more muscular, increasingly driven by drummer Christopher Bear's innate swing." Billboard (p.44) - "There's a certain fragility, both lyrically and musically, that gives SHIELDS its character." Q (Magazine) (p.102) - 4 stars out of 5 - "[C]loser 'Sun In Your Eyes' is evocative stuff. Tapping into Pink Floyd, it spotlights how Grizzly Bear are now reaching for greatness." Mojo (Publisher) (p.82) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Grizzly Bear's new sound is revealed to have expanded in all directions. It's poppier, darker, louder, quieter and a heroically creative album..." Paste (magazine) - "These songs are labyrinths. Ethereal, harmonic, beautiful..."

Grizzly Bear were gone for a few years after Veckatimest, but the amount of extracurricular projects they tackled during that time -- Chris Taylor's work with CANT, Daniel Rossen's solo EP Silent Hour/Golden Mile, and the band's reconfiguring of their own songs into the Blue Valentine soundtrack -- means they never really went away. Shields isn't exactly a dramatic return then, which is somehow fitting considering that this is some of the band's most cerebral music. There's nothing here with quite the instant appeal of "Two Weeks" or the aching vulnerability of "Foreground"; instead, most of these songs lie between those two poles. Yet Shields is full of remarkably active music, starting with "Sleeping Ute," where acoustic guitars that sound more like they're being scrubbed than strummed tumble into bubbling synths, which then give way to rhythms that conjure leaves twirling in the breeze. "Speak in Rounds" may be the most rocking song they've done yet, even if it climaxes with rustling brass and flutes instead of a shredding guitar solo. As dazzling as these flourishes can be, sometimes the complexity of Shields' arrangements threatens to overshadow the actual songs, and the most direct moments are among the album's best. "Yet Again" shows once again how good Grizzly Bear are at putting their abstract leanings into their version of a pop single: the guitars ring out with inevitability, the harmonies propel the song to new heights, and everything gets gloriously noisy before it fades away. The bouncy "A Simple Answer" and sleek "Gun-Shy" follow suit, but what makes them and the rest of Shields intriguing is the tension between the music's brash dynamics, and words and feelings that often turn inward. The band's lyrics are more cryptic and coded than ever, and the snippets that listeners get, such as "Cloistered from yourself/You never even try," from "What's Wrong," are abstractions of relationships that feel like extreme close-ups or bird's-eye views. These mysteries don't detract from the pure melodic beauty of songs like "Half-Gate," though, and the way that the album travels from its stormy beginnings to the serenity of "Sun in Your Eyes" means it can be called a song cycle without shame or snickering. While it's not as obviously big a statement as Veckatimest was, Shields is plenty ambitious in its own right, and its complexity demands and rewards patient listening. ~ Heather Phares

4枚目となるこのアルバムは、全体の流れだけでなく、メロディーやハーモニー、さらには演奏面も含め巧妙なアレンジが細部にまで行き届いた快作となった。難解なことをやっているはずなのに、郷愁たっぷりの曲には親しみやすさもあり、インディー・ロックの枠組みを超越した感も。海外と日本の評価に乖離があるとはいえ、本作で一気にその差を縮めるのは確実──穏やかな作品だが、そう思いたくなる凄みがある。
bounce (C)青木正之