Recalling, almost, the chorus of accolades and dropped jaws that greeted Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavilion this January, Grizzly Bear released their latest album, Veckatimest, to nearly unanimous cries of greatness last month. Though both albums flaunt a debt to the Beach Boys and strikingly ambitious scopes, Veckatimest doesn’t share Merriweather Post Pavilion’s outsider ambitions. Instead, it’s a more traditional, inclusive album that celebrates American music in its own tongue, with gentle, waltzing folk numbers kissed by jazz and psychedelia. At a time when plenty of folk-leaning indie-rockers are exploring their symphonic sides, few have been able to create anything quite as natural, quite as majestic as Grizzly Bear’s latest.
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