Grizzly Bear packs ‘Ruins’ with hidden treasures
“Who am I beneath the surface?”
Grizzly Bear poses that often-terrifying question on its squally self-appraisal Sky Took
Hold, a rumination on opening up and moving forward that closes out the experimental folk band’s sensational fifth album, Painted Ruins
( of four, out Friday). But it’s a query that Grizzly Bear spends the whole album asking, serving as an exemplary thesis statement for the group’s densest, most confessional work yet.
Painted Ruins arrives five years after the indie-rock maestros’ underrated Shields, which followed the band’s brushes with mainstream fame, fueled by the recurrence of breakout single Two Weeks in car commercials and movie trailers, and the inclusion of Grizzly Bear instrumental tracks in Blue Valentine. But then the Brooklyn-based thirtysomethings decided to take a breather, going through marriages, divorces, kids and solo projects as half the crew relocated to the West Coast.
Those life experiences form the wistful, sometimes melancholy center of the album’s 11 tracks. Grizzly Bear paints in evocative similes, likening a lover to “an invading spore growing inside me” on the groovy Cut-Out, and “a rogue wave” that engulfs heart and mind on the dreamy Losing All Sense. Pulsing lead single Mourning Sound and the staccato Four Cypresses abandon love almost entirely, instead tapping into feelings of regret and helplessness that are offset by Ed Droste’s and Daniel Rossen’s celestial harmonies.
Four Cypresses also contains one of the album’s most selfreflexive lyrics: “It’s chaos, but it works.” That line aptly describes Grizzly Bear’s richly textured arrangements, which have only grown more audacious yet polished. What starts as a solemn dirge on Glass Hillside eventually morphs into a deceptively mellifluous chantey, while the sweeping five-minute Three Rings is an ornately designed puzzle, as piercing guitar riffs and booming percussion fall into place amidst a surge of cool electronics.
It’s a knotty ball of sonic gymnastics that’s a marvel to unravel, but also doesn’t stray far from the unmistakable sound that made Grizzly Bear hipster royalty more than a decade ago. The title Painted Ruins may suggest a band sifting through the rubble of its own towering success, but Grizzly Bear has never stood taller.