Album Review: Grizzly Bear - Painted Ruins

On previous albums, one of the beauties of Grizzly Bear was trying to pin down how their music managed to pick you up and transport you somewhere else.

It's bloody tricky. Trying to do so without coming across like a pretentious sycophant is nigh on impossible. But somehow on Painted Ruins, the sum of all the impressive parts doesn't equal what it should. The elegant production, the stately performances and pretty harmonies are all there, but there are fewer surprises.

There is some of the magic spark that made that made Two Weeks so astronomically gorgeous and Knife so beguilingly hypnotic. Here, Mourning Sound is propelled along by a chugging bass line that's almost dancefloor-friendly. There's no obvious mourning qualities here, but as ever Grizzly Bear's lyrics are so enigmatic it's hard to be sure. Neighbors is another highlight; a mysteriously dark beauty that shifts in colour and shade like tropical shadows at sundown (see, we told you it's hard not to sound pretentious), which is followed by the oddly sinister serenity of Systole. It should set up an epic finish, with Sky Took Hold coming on like an ominous horizon that threatens to storm but never does.