Grizzly Bear, the Brooklyn-based psychedelic indie rock band, has released their fourth studio album, Shields, an eerie yet captivating set of 10 songs.

The band seemed to reach a creative peak in 2009 with their release of Veckatimest. The album, featuring the single “Two Weeks,” showed how capable the band was at pure pop songwriting.

Now three years later, the band delivers Shields, an album on artistic par with its critically acclaimed predecessor. As surprising and confusing as the band’s new album can often be, it makes sense in Grizzly Bear’s musical trajectory. Four gifted musicians, all with the capability of holding rhythm or leading a vocal harmony, seem to have become more of a band than ever before. They play so well off of each other and have crafted opaque arrangements that are obviously the culmination of three years of hard work.
The new album opens with a bang. “Sleeping Ute” starts on a bizarre note, with its odd time signatures and synthesizer arpeggios, the song challenges and rewards all at the same time, in a way only Grizzly Bear is capable of.

Shields is, as with most of their discography, a grower. Temperaments will slowly rise from complete hatred, to mild disappointment and finally to utter obsession. The melodies find a way to burrow their way inside of listeners’ heads. What seemed uninspired a couple listens ago suddenly appears to be well crafted and rather catchy.

The most accessible track here, “Yet Again,” sounds destined for greater things than bedroom pop with its sing-along chorus ready for an arena. Like every song here, the arrangement seems simple enough at first listen, perhaps even a little middling. Upon closer examination however, and multiple listens, the dense production and scattered instrumentation reveals just how daring it is.
“Speak in Rounds,” with its bouncing acoustic guitar, picks up where the Veckatimest track “Southern Point” leaves off. Both “What’s Wrong” and “Half Gate” add to the atmospheric mood of the album but do not stand very well as songs on their own. “Gun-shy” clearly has the best lyrics on Shields. Droste finds himself pained with some emotional trauma and decides to cut himself off from human interaction to avoid further pain. “The cold keeps tearing at me slowing down my blood… I left my mind long ago choosing something false.”

The album’s closer, “Sun In Your Eyes,” is perhaps the most beautiful song the band has produced to date. Coming in over seven minutes long, the song sits in a melancholy mood and goes to complete silence before its out-of-nowhere epic piano ballad climax. The song’s melody is chamber pop at its finest, reminiscent of Fleet Foxes crossed with prog rock.

Three years in the making and Grizzly Bear has produced a record that will not win over any new fans, but will treat the converted to a record filled with complex melodies and striking vocals. Many fans worried that Grizzly Bear could not top a work as perfect as Veckatimest, but Shields proves quite the opposite.