Sasha Frere-Jones on Grizzly Bear

"If 'Yellow House' was a respite, a quiet, single-story structure, the band’s new album, 'Veckatimest,' is a sprawling water park, sending you through different sluices and dropping you from pools down into slides that give onto small lakes. The album is named for an island off the coast of Cape Cod. 'We got really into the topography of the region and have fond memories of rehearsing there,' [band founder Ed] Droste explained. Like Sonic Youth’s 'Sister' and Radiohead’s 'Amnesiac,' 'Veckatimest' captures a band in full, collaborative density. The second track, 'Two Weeks,' is a big fat ice-cream cone of a song. The piano part sounds a little like 'Chopsticks' expanded into something more robust, with [drummer Chris] Bear merging a shuffle and a straightforward backbeat as the boys sing 'Oh-ooh-oh' up into the air—a doo-wop quartet launching into orbit. Droste sings about a 'routine malaise' but pledges, 'I told you I would stay.' The voices rise higher, as though the song were making itself giddy. … What’s so enjoyable about 'Veckatimest' is how wide an arc it swings after 'Two Weeks.' The band wants to unfurl in every direction, and does" ("Pop Music: Boys' Choir," New Yorker, 5/8/09, p. 111).