Grizzly Bear - Shields (Colour Reissue) (Vinyl)

Grizzly Bear never broke up. In the six years that have passed since their most recent shows, the four members who first drifted into the group two decades ago as loose friends and even total strangers - Chris Bear, Ed Droste, Daniel Rossen, Chris Taylor - have drifted out into other things. They’ve made other music, pursued other careers, cultivated other families, lived other lives beyond the bounds of being this band. And now, for the first time since 2019, these four musicians and friends will drift back into Grizzly Bear, to test the ties that made them one of this century’s most engrossing and beloved acts and see where else those old connections may yet lead. Because Grizzly Bear never broke up, their first shows in six years are not a reunion; they are a simultaneous point of arrival and departure, their next destination still unknown.

That sort of open-ended approach, after all, is what still makes Grizzly Bear one of this young century’s defining acts. Twenty years ago, they quickly morphed from a lo-fi songwriter project to a full band with an instantly singular sound, uncanny harmonies slipping around arrangements that paired the glow of a chamber orchestra to the grit of a rock group. They helped to redefine what was possible within indie rock by balancing lushness with looseness, a technical excellence with an emotional openness. Their musical traces remain ubiquitous, bits of their unorthodox perspective on sound and texture now part of the firmament. Hearing these songs live in 2025 will feel less like shaking hands with the past, then, than seeing their fingerprints in the present, as if for the first time.

To celebrate the band's return, colour vinyl album reissues of Yellow House, Veckatimest, Shields and Painted Ruins will be reissued.

Shields is the fourth studio album by Grizzly Bear, first released on September 18, 2012, by Warp Records. Written and recorded following a six-month hiatus from band activities, the album was produced by bassist and multi-instrumentalist Chris Taylor. Pitchfork's Lindsay Zoladz gave the album a Best New Music designation, writing "While there's no question that Grizzly Bear's last two records have sounded gorgeous, critics of the band have wondered if that's enough. Shields, the band's fourth and most compositionally adventurous record, should put those concerns to bed. Though full of baroque, detail-rich production and latticework melodies, Shields also offers an emotionally resonant core."

TRANSPARENT VINYL 2LP 
 
Tracklist:
A1. Sleeping Ute
A2. Speak In Rounds
A3. Adelma
A4. Yet Again
B1. The Hunt
B2. A Simple Answer
B3. What's Wrong
C1. gun-shy
C2. Half Gate
D1. Sun In Your Eyes