Grizzly Bear

Grizzly Bear – Friend EP

Swirling with layers of delicate acoustic instrumentation and voices layered until they can harness the power and beauty of an operatic choir, Grizzly Bear opened up ears with the psychedelic-drenched folk sounds on their sophomore album, Yellow House. Returning with a bulging EP that offers eleven tracks of re-assembled songs as well as covers of their material by close associates (Band Of Horses, CSS, and Atlas Sound), the Friend EP shouldn’t be view as an emptying of the closet. Receiving help from Beirut’s Zach Condon and Dirty Projector’s Dave Longstreth, “Alligator”, a track from their debut Horn Of Plenty, is expanded from a quick, loose keyboard tinkering into a expanded avalanche of bristling noise-pop. Brazilian art-punk band CSS transforms “Knife” into a giddy new-wave synth track, while Band of Horse takes “Plans” to the back porch with their banjo picking, erupting with a bluegrass sing-a-long. For newbies and fans alike, the Friend EP offers Grizzly Bear a unique chance to re-fashion their tunes with tremendous results.