Friend
Grizzly Bear Warp Records- Nov. 7, 2007
Of the cover tunes, CSS' version of "Knife" is the best. CSS successfully reduces the loose spaciousness of Grizzly Bear's original to tight electro blip-blops and steady drum machines, making a concise, accessible dance track. Atlas Sound miss the point about reinterpretation on their version of the same song, which sounds like someone just tinkered with a Grizzly Bear rehearsal take, and Band of Horses force ironic bluegrass with forgettable rendition of "Plans."
Daniel Rossen's home recording of "Deep Blue Sea" is pretty, but doesn't salvage the second half of Friend. It comes too late. Even the flamenco explosion that concludes the track leaves the listener wondering, why didn't I hear this earlier?
Friend is like two EP's stuck together, one solid and one silly. With a bit of rearranging and trimming, Friend could be a solid boost to Grizzly Bear's catalog. Unfortunately, the band crams too much in, and winds up with a disjointed smattering of odds and ends that won't do much besides filling out fans' B-sides playlists.
- Max McKenna
Daniel Rossen's home recording of "Deep Blue Sea" is pretty, but doesn't salvage the second half of Friend. It comes too late. Even the flamenco explosion that concludes the track leaves the listener wondering, why didn't I hear this earlier?
Friend is like two EP's stuck together, one solid and one silly. With a bit of rearranging and trimming, Friend could be a solid boost to Grizzly Bear's catalog. Unfortunately, the band crams too much in, and winds up with a disjointed smattering of odds and ends that won't do much besides filling out fans' B-sides playlists.
- Max McKenna
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