Shields
by Grizzly Bear

A very good album with some fantastic songs on here that are a lot fun to explore and listen to. The music feels full of depth and the instrumentation and vocal styling match up really well. This creates a cohesive feel which makes a great atmosphere for us to sit in. The vocal delivery feels so full of passion and power on this release making it very easy to relate to. It is so easy for us to be able to just sit back and enjoy the music as well making this a great album to relax to. Overall, this is an album of very high quality and I always find myself choosing to come back to this one over Veckatimest and I think it is because this is the superior release.

By far my favorite album of theirs, there's just so much depth here. The way they play with the notions of light and illusion as a metaphor for the overarching theme of relationships is entirely unique and the culmination of this trope in the final track is brilliant and creates a real moment of clarity. Brilliant lyrically and musically, I cannot recommend this album enough.

From Komorebi-D 03/17/2017 08:34 | #187551 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

Although I prefer Veckatimest just a marginal fraction more, this - in terms of quality - is every bits equal. It's essentially the same formula except this time around they have an eye for more expressive lyrics and ambient details (an aspect not picked up on first listen). Just when I thought they couldn't get more tumultuous, they release this.

From tangerinu 09/16/2016 15:14 | #175116

To me it's very interesting to see people rank Veckatimest above this, though I'm not surprised Yellow House is seen as better by some. To me, Yellow House captures something conceptually that the other albums don't - I feel like Veckatimest is more accessible, even thogh it took me longer to acclimatise to! Despite this, Shields's most exciting track, Sun In Your Eyes, is the most memorable song to me. The difference between this album and Horn Of Plenty, in my opinion, is an indicator that perhaps they could take some more risks to make their music more fun.

I dunno. I was trying to write something that put shields above Veckatimest and below Yellow House, but I can't quite explain why I'm not such a big fan of Veck. Shrug! :)

Another great album from Grizzly bear, although I don't think it's quite as good as, yellow house, or, veckatamist. Still, it's another strong record, but I hope they head in a slightly different direction on their next release.