It’s dismaying how (relatively) quickly critics and fans alike turn on bands they used to like. Grizzly Bear were everybody’s darlings when Veckatimest came out three years ago. Now you’ve got fickle hipsters complaining that the beautiful ‘Yet Again’ could be Coldplay, which it couldn’t – not in a thousand years.
Shields isn’t as great as Veckatimest, but it’s very very good and does boast the most heart-soaringly lovely (and, yes, “anthemic”) climax in ‘Sun In Your Eyes’. ‘Sleeping Ute’ is a sensational start, ‘Yet Again’ is as good as Radiohead in ’Knives Out’ vein, and there are lots of complex knotty unobvious moments that reinvent “rock” and keep it relevant – including two discomfiting tracks that summon the harrowing ghosts (and spooky scraping guitars) of Big Star Third. I also want to declare how much I’ve come to love Ed Droste’s very distinctive voice – wise, thoughtful, interesting, heart-felt.
It’s crucial that in our collective thirst for next-big-thingness we don’t cast aside the genuinely great acts who made the Noughties as vital as they were: Grizzly Bear, Bon Iver, Burial, Feist, White Denim, Vampire Weekend…
