Grizzly Bear - Painted Ruins

The Guardian 80

From unpromising beginnings, the indie band’s fifth album achieves an uncanny brilliance

The list of mid-2000s indie bands that should have given up the ghost never stops growing. It’s hard to remember the last time that the Strokes, Interpol, Kings Of Leon or even Arcade Fire looked like they remembered why they got into this in the first place. Reading the press around Grizzly Bear’s new album, it’s tempting to suggest they should be cashing in their chips too.

Having abandoned Brooklyn for upstate New York (co-frontman Daniel Rossen) and LA (the other three), they didn’t speak for a year after they finished touring 2012’s widely acclaimed album Shields. When bassist Chris Taylor’s pestering emails about a new record went unheeded, he started a cloud account for them to share ideas and taught himself guitar to get the ball rolling. Unsurprisingly, their fifth album didn’t take until fragments of the band met to write and they eventually started having fun. Roll on the making-of documentary.