All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

The Onion (A.V. Club)

Veckatimest offers more than just an inventive exercise in collage: It’s like hearing the past few centuries of music playing in symphony, which sounds--thrillingly and reassuringly--like the future.

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100

Delusions of Adequacy

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with this album and on the contrary, Grizzly Bear has clearly made the year’s best album.

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Filter

An Album this deep-hearted and digestible call out for mass-consumption. And the more people who hear this record, the better. [Spring 2009, p.90]

Paste Magazine

Underneath the orchestral flourishes and children’s choirs, beneath even the frequent textural shifts and melodic detours, are a set of melodies that find new ways to cut straight to the listener every time.

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No Ripcord

This one is probably the closest rival to Merriweather Post Pavilion we’ve heard this year.

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Urb

Combine some of the best pipes in the game with Grizzly Bear's newfound comfort in executing the grand & epic, and you've got Veckatimest; a total triumph that threatens to dwarf their own previous "House."

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Prefix Magazine

It plainly improves Grizzly Bear’s sound, and lends itself well to multiple spins, because each repeated listen reveals another perfectly crafted shard you missed on the last go-round.

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Sputnikmusic

Veckatimest works like a cash-back bonus, the more you give in to it, the grander the return.

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Drowned In Sound

Really, the only fault of this record is that its most arrestingly beautiful minute is its final one: everything that comes before, however brilliant it is at the time, pales once that choir swells, just for a few too-fleeting seconds.

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Pitchfork

Really, in a world far too concerned with backstories and far too lacking in good old dedication to craft, Grizzly Bear's just about as boring as they come: four guys who very quietly set out to make a fantastic record. And so they did.

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PopMatters

All bets aren’t necessarily off in terms of whether or not Grizzly Bear have hit their plateau--recall that we did this with "Yellow House" in 2006; oops--but it’s hard to imagine them giving us more to enjoy in one sweeping statement than they have here.

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musicOMH.com

Ambitious yet restrained, elegant yet exciting, Veckatimest is an endlessly-rewarding album which seems destined to vie with Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion for the title of the year's best.

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Under The Radar

This is a superb record, a spirted illustration of sepia-tinged Americana that feels linked inextricably with Animal Collective's "Merriweather Post Pavillion" as one of the not only most hyped, but also finest records of 2009. [Spring 2009, p.66]

Los Angeles Times

A feast for repeated listening, Veckatimest yields the kind of eccentricities a fan can spend months winding and unwinding.

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cokemachineglow

It’s a sophisticated work, delicately and meticulously crafted, and its effete pleasantness lends itself as well to "Late Night" performances as "New Yorker" coverage.

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Lost At Sea

While Veckatimest contains just over fifty-two minutes of some exceptional music, it lacks one critical component that's essential to any form of art: emotion.

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Entertainment Weekly

If the second half brings diminishing returns, it's still more than worth the trip.

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The Guardian

The musical emphasis subtly shifts, from track to track and within tracks to create something that feels rather greater than the sum of its parts.

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New Musical Express (NME)

For those patient enough to wait for this record to relinquish its quiet delights, the treasures waiting to be discovered it are rich indeed.

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Slant Magazine

The album dips and tips and ultimately soars as a result, Rossen and company having turned near-disaster into sonic triumph.

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Spin

Even as they feature orchestras, women's choirs, and Beach House singer Victoria Legrand on Veckatimest, the album is still an intimate, ascetic affair.

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Uncut

While I’m not sure Veckatimest is the huge improvement on Yellow House that some blogs claim it to be, it’s unquestionably a lovely record and it deserves to be heard on land, sea, indoors and out.

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Observer Music Monthly

Veckatimest's only down side is a touch of preciousness, a need for refinement that, unchecked, might nudge Grizzly Bear towards the polite rather than imaginative. It's a small quibble. For now, this is almost perfect.

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All Music Guide

It's clear that Veckatimest was made for a lot of listening. Nearly every song feels like the musical equivalent of a big meal: there's lots to digest, and coming back for second (and thirds, and more) is necessary.

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Billboard

The Brooklyn quartet Grizzly Bear has earned a reputation for dense sonic buildups and gorgeous harmonies, and the group's third album "Veckatimest" excels on both accounts.

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Boston Globe

Easily the band's most engrossing and dense album yet, Veckatimest subsumes the listener in dreamy washes of colliding instrumentation and symphonic crescendos.

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Dot Music

With such songs as 'Southern Point,' which builds from shuffling, folk-jazz grooves into a squelchy, winding fairytale, breathtaking piano-pop anthem 'Two Weeks' and the towering drama of 'I Live with You,' we join the consensus: this is a record to swoon over.

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NOW Magazine

This back and forth continues throughout the album and makes for a satisfying mix of clarity and perplexity. In the indie rock game, Grizzly Bear’s expansive scope is unmatched.

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Hartford Courant

Even the songs that seem simple have greater depth than is at first apparent, and the band's skill at crafting complex music in an increasingly accessible way makes Veckatimest a rich listen.

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Q Magazine

It's a beautiful piece of work. [June 2009]

Austin Chronicle

Grizzly Bear did what's often impossible for lesser acts: shrugged off the overheated tongues of the Internet, refined its sound, and put out a solid disc.

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Rolling Stone

Already a front-runner for 2009's most gushed-over art-rock record, the third disc from this Brooklyn quartet has a sound that is completely its own.

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Dusted Magazine

On Veckatimest, by contrast, the experimentation can go over the top: the additional arrangements may not add much aside from being one more thing to admire. And, paradoxically, doing that moves some songs out of the avant-garde and squarely into the middle of the road.

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Mojo

Awesome in scope and execution, it's an album that's ultimately easier to admire than it is to love. [Jun 2009, p.108]

Tiny Mix Tapes

The result is a piece of art that had too much pressure ascribed to it, that found its creators trying too hard to make a masterpiece when they could have followed a more natural progression.

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MSN Consumer Guide (Robert Christgau)

Their skilled playing remains modest enough, but on this subtler and more pretentious material, the skills predominate, and just in case they don't, let's add a string quartet here and real choirboys there.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this album is 8.5 (out of 10) based on 111 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

tim E gave it a6:
To me polished is the last word I think of when describing this album. I would love it if this album were more polished. I know in the pretentious indie world words like polished, overproduced and slick are like the devil but the whole lofi production thing was such a long time ago. Aren't we over it yet? I sure am which is why this album was so disappointing. I wanted to like it so badly. In fact I'm giving a higher score than I believe it deserves because I'm hoping it will eventually grow on me. Their first single and the album closer are excellent and the fact that they ended the album on a high note makes this album slightly more memorable so props to them for that.

Curtis B gave it a9:
Almost flawless.

Steve gave it a5:
I have listened to this album repeatedly and while I can admire the obvious time and craft that has gone into it, it just wont stick. This frustrates me as a lot of people obviously like this music but as with the Animal Collective this doesn't move me. They have been compared to Radiohead and I love In Rainbows (in my opinion the best album in years) but i think this album lacks heart/soul/connect with the listener (or at least me) and so it is easier to admire than love. So for me i'm afraid its a 5, a bit over hyped.

pat gave it a7:
A few bright moments, but the music often meanders when it feels like it should be going somewhere. Even after repeated listening I found it a much less rewarding experience than Yellow House.

guybrush threepwood gave it a10:
This album is such a grower - on the first listen, it is instantly forgettable, asides from the first single Two Weeks perhaps, but after a week or two the subtle hooks become more apparent... then you're hooked.

Gino M gave it a10:
On of the greatest albums of the year if not the decade. I love heavy riffs, hard'n'fast tempos, and simplicity, but once in a while it's fantastic to find comfort in such a sublime and carefully crafted album.

Sam T gave it a10:
I'll admit that it didn't immediately grab me... I had to jump from "Two Weeks" to "While you wait for the others" for the first few plays. However, this is an incredible album that grows on you more and more each time you listen to it. If you've only given it one play through... try it again. The end especially is astoundingly beautiful.

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