I twittered a couple of things (really, only two, but I'm not going to adjust this paragraph retroactively) over the course of listening to this album, as I normally do, but I figure I'll consolidate them here and elaborate upon them, because this is an interesting album and it's getting a lot of attention, so I'll jump on the bandwagon and give it my attention.
Grizzly Bear's new album will make great quiet background music in the bedrooms of hipsters. Mine, too, but this ain't driving music.
My initial listen to Veckatimest left me feeling sleepy. So sleepy, in fact, that I passed out shortly after writing this tweet. It left me with a certain image in my head inspired by my youth. About six years ago I went with my friend to visit this goth girl, and in her bedroom, VAST's self-titled debut was playing quietly on the stereo and it was such perfect mood music. I played perfectly at low volumes and really set the mood of her bedroom.
This album feels like it could set the mood of any number of indie chick's bedroom. It's got this dreamy feeling to it, like sun filtering through the trees on a Sunday morning, or just filtering through the blinds, you know, and there's some girl in plaid lying there in bed with no pants on, all smooth pale leg flesh stretching on for miles. That's how this album feels for the first five tracks.
When I approach Veckatimest from the assumption it's an 80's goth album by way of Wilco and The Shins, then it makes way more sense.
This is an odd album overall, the style and sound of it is pretty unique as far as my experience with music goes. This Twitter sums up how I work it into my musical spectrum: vocals from Christian Death mixed with a Wilco and Shins mix of music.
Pitchfork's review of Eminem's latest album makes a couple of interest statements about musical fidelity and Dr. Dre's new expensive headphones:
But ever since "In Da Club" (and probably because of it), Dre has treated production like a test run for his very expensive headphones, concerning himself with only the most inert, stainless steel sounds. But you don't have to be an audiophile to find fault with the music here
And I bring this up to say the nicest thing I can about this album: it sounds incredible. This is not an album of electronic beats and synthesized bloops, this is about the rich sound of instruments layered on top of one another and used to make marvelous music. You remember when Radiohead used real instruments and recorded real music that you could listen to and feel the people playing the music? This album is like that. It is sonically rich and textured.
In a time when so many great artists are relying on excessive studio polish to remove all the soul from their music (cough, Metric, cough) or are forgoing traditional songwriting and creation in order to facilitate their artist excesses using bullshit electronics (Radiohead, here, again, under my blade), it's such a relief to hear a band that actually plays their instruments, and isn't scared to let people hear how fucking awesome and alive they sound.
It is a shame that from "Dory" onward the album takes this long slow graceful nosedive into the ground. It's on purpose, but for what purpose I don't know, but all I know is that we've got an album of six really strong songs and then three songs that suck all the energy the first half the album gave you right out of you and then stomps on it.
It's OK: I am not the "album listener" I once was. Those tracks will fall away and my memory of Veckatimest will be untainted by the meandering the closing tracks do. Regardless, this is a beautiful album, musically, that should be listened to through the highest quality gear you can muster. Enjoy!