Yellow House

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Customer reviews

review by: JuJuDollie date: 2009-06-30 rating:
the perfect grower
I was recommended Grizzly Bear by a friend as this one was on sale I bought it. At first I wasn't 100% sold on it but I think that was because I just had it on in the background. Now I've heard it a few times it's a firm favourite with me. br /It reminds me of Midlake's Van Occupanther and, as others have mentioned, Iron Wine with it's sweeping music and interesting lyrics. br /Have a go and I hope it will be a grower with you too.

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review by: mark1504 date: 2009-03-19 rating:
Progressively baroque
Firstly, I'm shocked that Mr Solinas hasn't given this 5 stars. He's usually a pretty good judge of great music. I shall take up this matter directly! br / br /In my opinion this is one of the most underrated albums of the new century. Trust me, this will only become better known as the years pass. br / br /So what's it like? To me, it's like a band who treat their instruments and voices like an orchestra. Everything is meticulously constructed. They don't just play along with the song like so many bands, each harmony and instrument has a purpose, adding thoughtfully to their soundworld. And that's what makes it work. Whilst it's accepted that Knife and On A Neck On A Spit are strong highlights (the most accessible), the album is fully inspired throughout, and that's a rare thing. Strongly recommended to a baroque pop/rock listener. br / br /Looking for a reference point? Somewhere between Fleet Foxes and Animal Collective. (If you don't know who those bands are, you're really not keeping up!) br / br / br /

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review by: date: 2008-10-16 rating:
Bear Necessity
An album best listened to from start to finish for full effect as the songs flow into each other perfectly. The mix of minimal acoustic sounds and epic flourishes is seamless. The euphoric 'On A Neck, On A Spit' and dreamlike 'Colorado' are highlights for me although I'd say 'Marla' perhaps leaves the biggest impression sounding as it does like some haunted relic from another age.

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review by: blogs @ Just William's Luck date: 2008-08-18 rating:
haunting house
This album was brought to my attention by James Dalrymple, whose review you'll see here too, when we were talking about Fleet Foxes and Bon Iver. I can see why he mentioned it to me in conjunction with those two outfits, it's in the alt-country/folk mould but with some electronic influence as you might expect from an album released by the label Warp. What I've been really impressed by is the complexity, as I listen to the album again and again I hear something new each time. There are West Coast harmonies and folky strummings but a wide range of instrumentation that includes flutes, clarinets and many other classical instruments too. The singing is not as clearly beautiful as that on Fleet Foxes début but with all four members of the band contributing differing styles it is in some ways more interesting. br / br /A track like Lullabye which begins with acoustic guitars and a melody The Beatles would have been happy with is soon subverted by discordant guitar, chanted vocals and a musical crescendo which makes you realise how misleading the title is. The lyrics too unsettle, what do they mean when they sing 'My love's another kind'. Central and Remote is another track that contains surprising power as they sing about how 'Pressing matters bear', the darkness lifted by soaring vocal harmonies. Little Brother sounds like standard folk until stomps and handclaps lift it and lush vocals take it into the realms of film-score beauty. Plans is a good example of the electronic influences which help take the simple whistled melody into a landscape populated by beeps, whistles and a big brass section; the song fracturing at the end under the weight of its many parts. The track I keep being haunted by is Marla which with its old piano and string accompaniment creates a beautiful and yet very creepy feel, like walking into an empty house to find a piano playing itself and quiet voices echoing down the hall. br / br /The album was in fact recorded in Ed Droste's mother's house (the eponymous Yellow House) so perhaps that has something to do with my thoughts. There's certainly a lot going on musically, which means that with headphones on your mind can go on some very interesting journeys. It can meander at times or dissolve into the kind of vague psych-noodling that carries a waft of patchouli in the air but all in all it makes for an atmospheric album which really delivers when listened to from beginning to end. Thanks again to James for making me aware.


review by: jamesewan date: 2007-10-20 rating:
8/10. 'Central And Remote'
I came across Grizzly Bear via Dan Rossen's brilliant - but wholly different - earlier project Department of Eagles. I was initially underwhelmed and bemused, but I persevered and can back previous reviewers who have labelled this a grower. If like me you have come to Grizzly Bear via Department of Eagles, you will want to know what, if anything, it has in common with that project. Not a great deal in fact - this shares more with the deconstructed Beach Boys harmonies and acid-spiked folk of Animal Collective, for example, or a less-prosaic version of Tunng's haunted Wicker Man folktronica. Throw in the wierd, rustic Americana of Midlake, Matt Elliot's Gallic ghostliness, the multi-instrumental dynamism and song-within-song structures of Soft Bulletin-era Flaming Lips, with a pinch of Bernard Herrmann and you might get something close. Whereas the Animal Collective reconstruct the spirit of the Beach Boys through the giddy, sometimes nauseating hyperactivity of childhood, Grizzly Bear's interpretation is spectral and autumnal, relocated from sunny California to the bleak New York woodlands. br / br /Woodwinds, banjo, acoustic guitar, jazzy percussion and piano combine with a subtle use of electronics to create a sound that is at once creakily lo-fi and, when they want, vast and orchestral. Something in the assemlance of sounds suggests a commonality with other artists on the Warp roster, belied by the roaming formlessness of the songs. Melodic refrains segue in and out of cavernous musical interludes, many clocking up to six minutes. There are times when it slips out of focus and starts to drift into cultish incidental music, but the album is best taken as a whole, with a carefully-refined and singular atmosphere. One for winter days. br / br /Like this? Try any of the aforementioned artists, especially Animal Collective's 'Song Tungs' or even Iron and Wine's 'Shepherd's Dog'.

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