Grizzly Bear return on Painted Ruins with more synergy than ever. Photo / supplied
Grizzly Bear return on Painted Ruins with more synergy than ever. Photo / supplied
In a number of interviews leading up to the release of Painted Ruins, the four members of Grizzly Bear have spoken about the way the music industry has changed around them - as much in the five years since they released Shields in 2012 as in the 13years since their 2004 debut. They're open about the fact that they now live more disparate lives from one another, and have expressed some thoughtful (though rather crusty-sounding) ponderings over the way streaming services have overtaken traditional album listening formats.
Grizzly Bear clearly stuck to their guns for Painted Ruins and concentrated on creating an album that retains the more traditional format of their previous offerings; a record that unfolds with focus and restraint, taking time to introduce themes, and allowing for breathing space between bigger moments. This time, they've also embraced new ideas and taken different roads, resulting in a generous, expansive record that reveals new secrets upon each repeat listen.
Fans will be pleased to hear the band's usual vivid guitar and haunting vocal melodies throughout (both layered gloriously together on the enigmatic Glass Hillside) - but this time, more tracks thrust explosive, palpitating drumbeats to the centre of the mix, and there's a gloriously clever use of synths that neither overpowers nor concedes to the band's astute and still surprising folk-rock song writing. Singer Ed Droste's silken vocals are better than ever, with his falsetto piloting tracks like the brooding, explorative Three Rings or Cut-Out (on which Droste, who recently went through a divorce, muses elusively: "a perfect man is not hard to find".)
The ideas for Painted Ruins were apparently shared and collated via Dropbox between each of the band's geographically separate members - but for such a seemingly disconnected creative process, the product finds the band with more synergy than ever. Painted Ruins seamlessly blends a broad range of intelligent musical elements, and it strengthens the record right down to the foundations.
Grizzly Bear, Painted Ruins
Artist: Grizzly Bear Album: Painted Ruins Label: RCA Records Verdict: Broad, expansive sounds lay strong foundations for a record with secrets to tell.
