The music you might have missed in 2009
Kyle Buckner
Issue date: 2/5/10 Section: Entertainment
1. Grizzly Bear - Vekatimest
2. Dave Rawlings Machine - A Friend of a Friend
3. Magnolia Electric Company - Josephine
4. Girls - Album
5. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
6. M. Ward - Hold Time
7. St. Vincent - Actor
8. Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca
9. The Flaming Lips - Embryonic
10. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
1. Grizzly Bear - Vekatimest - Brooklyn quartet Grizzly Bear put their heads together in the follow-up to their 2006 masterpiece Yellow House, which received rave reviews from critics and fans alike. Vekatimest, more pop and more melodic than Yellow House, portrayed an even more mature, well-rounded, and imaginative Grizzly Bear.
Vocalists Ed Droste and Daniel Rossen alternate vocals on the album's songs, each with his own haunting and morose delivery. Lilting harmonies are scattered throughout every track, each band member contributing to the almost cosmic sound. Heavily distorted, garbled guitars accompany punching keyboards to make this sonic masterpiece a hard one to forget.
"Two Weeks," the album's most successful single is sure to have the listener pogo-ing toward the ceiling, while the eerie "While You Wait for the Others" almost sends you right back into your seat and into a daydream. Vekatimest tells us that Grizzly Bear is capable of orchestrating complex, obscure songs along with poppy ones; a goal many bands cannot achieve.
2. Dave Rawlings Machine - A Friend of a Friend - Alt/ folk duo Dave Rawlings and Gillian Welch have done it again. A Friend of a Friend is like a trip back in time; back when music's subject matter was simple and complex at the same time.
Dave and Gillian have a talent that not many musicians have today: the ability to combine new and old lyricism with traditional music. This album's songs could've been released in the '40s and no one would've been the wiser, but the songs can still be related to our own time. Dave's voice, southern gentleman fused with backwoods moonshiner, and Gillian's warm, honey-soaked vocals couldn't better complement each other. It's no wonder that a host of recording artists have sought the help of these two folkies.
2. Dave Rawlings Machine - A Friend of a Friend
3. Magnolia Electric Company - Josephine
4. Girls - Album
5. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
6. M. Ward - Hold Time
7. St. Vincent - Actor
8. Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca
9. The Flaming Lips - Embryonic
10. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
1. Grizzly Bear - Vekatimest - Brooklyn quartet Grizzly Bear put their heads together in the follow-up to their 2006 masterpiece Yellow House, which received rave reviews from critics and fans alike. Vekatimest, more pop and more melodic than Yellow House, portrayed an even more mature, well-rounded, and imaginative Grizzly Bear.
Vocalists Ed Droste and Daniel Rossen alternate vocals on the album's songs, each with his own haunting and morose delivery. Lilting harmonies are scattered throughout every track, each band member contributing to the almost cosmic sound. Heavily distorted, garbled guitars accompany punching keyboards to make this sonic masterpiece a hard one to forget.
"Two Weeks," the album's most successful single is sure to have the listener pogo-ing toward the ceiling, while the eerie "While You Wait for the Others" almost sends you right back into your seat and into a daydream. Vekatimest tells us that Grizzly Bear is capable of orchestrating complex, obscure songs along with poppy ones; a goal many bands cannot achieve.
2. Dave Rawlings Machine - A Friend of a Friend - Alt/ folk duo Dave Rawlings and Gillian Welch have done it again. A Friend of a Friend is like a trip back in time; back when music's subject matter was simple and complex at the same time.
Dave and Gillian have a talent that not many musicians have today: the ability to combine new and old lyricism with traditional music. This album's songs could've been released in the '40s and no one would've been the wiser, but the songs can still be related to our own time. Dave's voice, southern gentleman fused with backwoods moonshiner, and Gillian's warm, honey-soaked vocals couldn't better complement each other. It's no wonder that a host of recording artists have sought the help of these two folkies.
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