Shields might not be the newest album, but after listening to it for months and seeing them play it live, my current view is exactly what it was after my first listen- it’s fucking brilliant. We knew Veckatimest wasn’t gonna be easy to follow, and the band took their time doing it, but the result was an absolute masterpiece. Grizzly bear disappeared, prospered the crap out of life for a couple of years and came back with THIS. It’s been described as a more accessible Veckatimest, in other terms a Veckatimest for the newbies, but in my opinion it is certainly no less of a thrilling experience. The album itself is yearning and sensitive, an easy brush stroke of guitar and piano- but it’s not pathetic. It’s a screaming force, precise and driven, tethered down roaring and somersaulting in this beautifully produced cushion of sound. It knows its place, there’s something withheld. It’s more of a catch-their-eye-across-the-room-and-know-they-want-you than a get-talking-and-blurt-out-your-breast-size-at-the-bar. It’s like you can hear the band grinning darkly out of the melody amongst the tasteful drumming and fist-to-the-air choruses as if to say, “we took your expectations and blew them to dust, now bow to us.” Maybe they don’t quite have the ‘booming pop hit’ on this one as they did with ‘Two Weeks’, but they’ve spread out that sensational hit feeling over the whole album, tweaking the personality of every song until it became a gleaming summit of its own. For that reason it’s been difficult to decide a favourite- but after a few ambling strolls in sunny fields, a few bad days and a one average Christmas, I’ve chosen the final track, ‘Sun In Your Eyes’. It’s not the one that’ll spring straight out to you- that would be ‘Yet Again’, which hits you like that hot waft of air when you open the oven. However, ‘Sun In Your Eyes’ has a treasure of a chorus’ filled with that kind of passion and relentless paralysing impact which yanks the breath from your lungs and stabs that hot poker of awesome love for music into your stomach. My advice? Buy this album, a really lavish chocolate cake, and some plastic cutlery. Go home alone, get your speakers on nice and loud (if like me you have a tight arsed neighbour that bangs on the wall make that VERY loud) and bathe luxuriously in a puddle of endorphins. You earned it.
annaxmalina
germansingergirl
vaporwave
izzy806
origamiaround
dededos
romaincrisis
snowghoul
