Top 10 Albums of 2012

119. Department of Eagles - ‘In Ear Park’ + Absent Friend

Department of Eagles - ‘In Ear Park’ + Absent Friend

Ingredients: 1 ounce gin, 1/3 ounce grenadine syrup, 1/3 ounce heavy whipping cream, 1/2 ounce egg white, ground nutmeg for garnish

Mixing Instructions: Pour all ingredients into a shaker filled with ice.  Shake vigorously and strain into a cordial glass.  Sprinkle ground nutmeg on top.

Notes:  Four years before joining Grizzly Bear, Daniel Rossen began creating music in his dorm room with NYU roomate, Fred Nicolaus.  The two borrowed gear from their dorm neighbor, Chris Taylor (Grizzly Bear) and initially just played for friends, but word spread fast.  Skipping ahead to 2007, Rossen was just coming off a successful release of Yellow House with Grizzly Bear when he joined Nicolaus in the studio for their second album together.  Dedicated to Rossen’s father, who passed the year they began recording, the album delicately portrays a carousel of childhood memories.  Backed with the intimate layered vocals and beautiful guitar strumming, this is an album that unfolds over many listens and is another example of why Daniel Rossen is quite possibly the most underrated musician of the past decade.

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64. Grizzly Bear - ‘Shields’ + Japanese Cocktail

Grizzly Bear - ‘Shields’ + Japanese Cocktail

Ingredients: 2 ounces cognac, 1/2 ounce orgeat syrup, 3 dashes Angostura bitters

Mixing Instructions: Stir ingredients well with cracked ice and strain into chilled cocktail glass.  Garnish with a lemon peel twist.

Notes: In The Book of Five Rings, 17th-century Japanese swordsman Miyamoto Musashi used the five elements of Japanese philosophy (earth, water, fire, wind, void) to describe the various elements of battle.  Listening to Shields, it becomes evident that this may be a fitting lens through which to experience Grizzly Bear’s fourth album, their top effort to date.  The band takes the best from their first three albums and strips their instrumentation down to the most essential elements that make them so head-shakingly good…and so, well…Grizzly Bear.

There is a minimalism that most might not catch on first listen.  It’s not that there isn’t a lot going on throughout the album, it’s that even when they’re throwing seven different kinds of smoke in terms of sheer sound complexity you can clearly hear each element, perfectly separate and unique from its musical surroundings, situated in harmony with the whole.  

It’s hard to find any real weak spots from start to finish because even in the down moments you get the sense that it is all very intentional…even the void.  And then there’s “Sun In Your Eyes” the album’s final track…*moment of silence*…a song that starts with the closing of a door (you’re in the inner chambers) and puts on a seven-minute master class.  A song that David Longstreth of Dirty Projectors described as, “…the song I (have) been hoping Grizzly Bear would write.”  Make yourself a perfectly-balanced cocktail and spin this album….the album we’ve all been hoping Grizzly Bear would create.    

purchase vinyl:   Amazon   ||   Insound