Painted Ruins＜Colored Vinyl＞

オルタナティブ・モダン・フォーク・バンド、グリズリー・ベアが過去作4タイトルをカラー・ヴァイナルで一挙リイシュー!

NYのブルックリンをベースに活動するオルタナティブ・モダン・フォーク・バンド、グリズリー・ベア。
アニマル・コレクティヴやダーティー・プロジェクターズと並んでUSインディ界を牽引するバンドとして君臨してきた彼らが、6年ぶりのライブ活動再開を記念し、過去作4タイトルをカラー・ヴァイナルで一挙ヴァイナル・リイシュー!

ピアノ、ストリングス、ブラッシュでなでたドラム、積み重ねられたボーカルとその上に乗せられるエレクトロニクスがグリズリー・ベア・サウンドの原点となる『Yellow House』、映画音楽やビョーク、ルーファス・ウェインライトなどとの仕事でも知られる作曲家のニコ・マーリーや、ミシェル・ルグランの姪のヴィクトリア・ルグランが参加し、豊穣さと幽玄さを兼ね備えた『Veckatimest』、ニュー・アメリカーナのノスタルジックな情景を、珠玉のメロディとハーモニーで濃密になぞりながら、複雑でモダンなアレンジで包んだ成熟のバンド・サウンドが堪能できる『Shields』、そして、派手さには欠けるものの、細部まで作り込まれたサウンド、優しいメロディーなど、グリズリー・ベア節が堪能できる『Painted Ruins』、今改めて聴いても、聴くたびに新たな発見をもたらす4作品!

During the five years between Shields and Painted Ruins, the lives of Grizzly Bear's members changed, thanks to marriage, children, and divorce. So did the way many listeners consume music, thanks to the advent of streaming music services and other advances. So if the band's meditative fifth album feels a little out of time, it's in a good way; Painted Ruins sounds timeless rather than tied to any particular moment. Even its structure suggests an old-school album, beginning with the somber prologue "Wasted Acres," which offers a welcome return to the band's postmodern chamber pop even as it mentions a Honda TRX 250 all-terrain-vehicle, and closes with the sweeping, brass-driven melancholy of "Sky Took Hold." In between, the band revisits their music from new perspectives, making slight tweaks but remaining unmistakably Grizzly Bear. "Aquarian" and "Cut-out" borrow some of Shields' insularity as they ponder life's unanswerable questions, while the gorgeous harmonies and harpsichord on "Neighbors" hark back to Yellow House. Elsewhere, the band expands on Veckatimest's poignant pop with "Losing All Sense," which is cut from the same cloth as "Two Weeks," and "Mourning Sound," where the upfront rhythm section gives a deceptive bounce to lyrics like "This isn't a place where I can even try." Throughout Painted Ruins, the beautiful arrangements reflect -- and invite -- contemplation as they carry the songs' ambiguous themes and lyrics, which balance cryptic introspection with flashes of clarity. Grizzly Bear channels the chaos and turbulence of the 2010s more subtly than some of their contemporaries, imbuing it with political and personal depth on songs like "Four Cypresses," which creates a tension between its fluid strings and martial beats that's all the more intriguing because it isn't obvious. And when Ed Droste tells a lover who's on the way out "Don't you be so easy" on "Three Rings," it might as well be the album's manifesto. Occasionally, Painted Ruins' drifting meditations border on meandering, but its open-ended beauty is well worth the close listening it takes for the album to fully reveal itself. ~ Heather Phares

5年もスパンが空いたから、ぶっちゃけどうなの?と思っていたけど、間違いなくこれはキャリア最高傑作! メジャーに移籍しようとも、ダニエル以外の全員がLAに引っ越そうとも、自由度が高くて複雑でブルックリンらしい実験サイケ・ポップはしっかり深化&進化しています。名曲"Two Weeks"の続きを見せてくれるセンティメンタルなアシッド・フォークや、グニャリと歪んだゴスペル調など、マジで捨て曲なし!
bounce (C)小泉いな子