In all, Painted Ruins represents the band’s strongest compositions since Yellow House—and still, there’s something weirdly revolutionary about this kind of formalism in 2017.
While the music industry has changed and evolved since Shields, on Painted Ruins Grizzly Bear prove that there is still a space and a sound that only they can occupy.
The five years of space following has worked in their favour — leading to the conception of a creature that breathes confidently with a heavy sense of hyper-ambition in ‘Painted Ruins’.
Painted Ruins is a wondrously complex adventure that rewards attention and patience yet is never inscrutable.
It’s a challenging piece of work. Grizzly Bear have always had high expectations of their audience, and Painted Ruins is no exception. You need to meet it on its terms.
A more than a welcome return, Painted Ruins is the album you suspect Grizzly Bear didn't think they'd ever make.
While the detailing is still incredibly myopic – Three Rings evokes a dirty iceberg slipping into the sea shard by shard – bold paint splatters now daub their crosshatchings.
So imaginative and detailed is their sound that only the slightest fine-tuning is ever really required, and when its constituent parts come together, as during the wonderfully groggy climax of album closer "Sky Took Hold," there are few that can match them.
Painted Ruins stands as Grizzly Bear's poppiest record, though not at the expense of the band's trademark orchestral whirlwind and deliberately obscured and abstracted messages.
There is no mistaking Grizzly Bear's sound; this album doesn't drastically change anything from their 'formula', but when said the formula is so enthralling and unpredictable, no wonder it still hasn't lost its sheen after a decade creating it.
The chief irony of Painted Ruins is that this album tackling the heavy subject of all things crumbling and passing ends up being the band’s most alive, cohesive offering.
Painted Ruins is a harmonious, richly textured tapestry of songwriting and performance, their most mature record to date.
Painted Ruins is very much a Grizzly Bear record, with the band capitalizing on the glorious, experimental melodies that have become their hallmark. But the project is much more avant garde than their previous records, with their greater abundance of catchy hooks and hits.
The intricate compositions on the band’s fifth album are bound tighter than ever, evoking distant images and emotions that continually shift in and out of focus.
Occasionally, Painted Ruins' drifting meditations border on meandering, but its open-ended beauty is well worth the close listening it takes for the album to fully reveal itself.
Painted Ruins stops short of fearlessly exploring new musical terrain, instead content to approach the familiar from new angles.
You get some of the space of Yellow House, some of the careful orchestration of Veckatimest, some of the more overt rock elements of Shields. But this one takes those elements and adds others to take the band’s sound in a different direction.
The sound is still ornate – on "Glass Hillside," nylon-string embroidery melts into gilded choirs, with oddball melodies recalling Brit proggers Soft Machine. Elsewhere, simple cybernetic beats and synths dominate.
Grizzly Bear returns from a five-year hibernation with a mirror image of their previous album, Shields.
You’re left feeling that much of Painted Ruins could be a slow-burn grower, if those studiously painted collages were more emotionally inviting.
A swirling, abstract painting of an album, and an eclectic slow burner, ‘Painted Ruins’ serves more as a fascinating indication of where Grizzly Bear could head next than anything else.
Too much hard work – on the listener’s part, as well as theirs – is invested, with scant return.
On Painted Ruins, sonic exploration causes the album’s atmosphere to rise to salience and all but divest its songs of distinctiveness and viscera.
Grizzly Bear 5th studio album, Painted Ruins, is their most glossy record and at this point, their folk oriented sound is more on the backburner for Art rock record with some top notch production providing some nice psychedelic sounds and still containing that lovely subtly the band is known for, Painted Ruins still follows the suit that every record is good by the band, although i do think this is a slight downgrade with less memorable moments than the previous 2 albums, especially within the ... read more
A more bombastic Grizzly Bear album in its own way. Most of the songs on the album follow a formula of coming out the gates pretty fast, exploding in the middle, and sizzling into a beautiful and awesome quieter groove until the song's end. This is a formula not very many bands other than Grizzly Bear tend to use, which is why I'm fine with them using it so often on Painted Ruins. Plus, the instrumentation, melodies, and lyrics are lovely. Something never really worth commending in previous ... read more
This was a very solid Indie album, totally blew my expectations out of the water. The instrumentals are psychedelic at moments, and compelling all around. I found it super easy to get into them. Also, the vocals/lyrics are pretty solid too. The voice fits perfectly around the instrumentals, with softer undertones. Both the vocals and the instrumentals complement each other. This was a fresh listen the whole way through with each song being unique in its own way. This was a strong suit as it ... read more
7/10
good
Fav tracks: Wasted Acres, Mourning Sound, Three Rings, Losing All Sense, Aquarian, Cut-Out, Neighbors, Systole
I guess I took time to fully appreciate this album. I didn't tolerated some tracks here at first, but for some reason after a year or two I came back and listened to this album again and seemed even more enjoyable. This album slaps.
Hate the compressed production
Songs are alright but nowhere near as interesting as what they did before
1 | Wasted Acres 2:52 | 80 |
2 | Mourning Sound 4:22 | 83 |
3 | Four Cypresses 4:48 | 87 |
4 | Three Rings 4:48 | 90 |
5 | Losing All Sense 5:05 | 89 |
6 | Aquarian 4:17 | 85 |
7 | Cut-Out 3:45 | 87 |
8 | Glass Hillside 4:53 | 82 |
9 | Neighbors 4:44 | 93 |
10 | Systole 3:16 | 86 |
11 | Sky Took Hold 5:32 | 86 |
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