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Veckatimest Image
Metascore
85

Universal acclaim - based on 36 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
8.7

Universal acclaim- based on 216 Ratings

  • Summary: The third album for the Brooklyn-based indie-rock band.
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 32 out of 36
  2. Negative: 0 out of 36
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 80
    Even as they feature orchestras, women's choirs, and Beach House singer Victoria Legrand on Veckatimest, the album is still an intimate, ascetic affair.
  6. For those patient enough to wait for this record to relinquish its quiet delights, the treasures waiting to be discovered it are rich indeed.
  7. 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.

See all 36 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 49 out of 58
  2. Negative: 6 out of 58
  1. Nov 5, 2010
    10
    It's pulls you in with Two Weeks, and just grows on you from there on in. Grab your headphones and prepare to go on a musical journey for theIt's pulls you in with Two Weeks, and just grows on you from there on in. Grab your headphones and prepare to go on a musical journey for the next 50 minutes, almost every song is a classic and the album flows very well. Expand
  2. DaveG
    May 29, 2009
    10
    Yeah, I get the whole "oh it's just this year's it band" criticism. Get past that, and it's the best record all year, hands Yeah, I get the whole "oh it's just this year's it band" criticism. Get past that, and it's the best record all year, hands down-- and I've already gushed over Animal Collective. Expand
  3. garys
    Jul 30, 2009
    10
    Cool sound. Did not sound good on the first listen but really sticks by the 3rd time around. Cannot turn it off now. Powerful instrumental Cool sound. Did not sound good on the first listen but really sticks by the 3rd time around. Cannot turn it off now. Powerful instrumental and harmony mixes in a very unique and original sound These guys have the same potential as the Beatles if the right things fall into place. Expand
  4. JamesB.
    May 27, 2009
    9
    This is an absolutely stunning and gorgeous album! There's not a single clunker on it, though I DO have my personal favs. This masterful This is an absolutely stunning and gorgeous album! There's not a single clunker on it, though I DO have my personal favs. This masterful album's intricacy and intimacy is profoundly felt and appreciated indeed. "Veckatimest" is certainly destined to be lauded as one of 2009's best albums for sure. Expand
  5. P.B
    Jul 10, 2009
    9
    Better with every listening.
  6. RyanB.
    May 26, 2009
    8
    Don't get me wrong - this is a fantastic album. My problem with it is that there are a few songs here that are actually perfect and show Don't get me wrong - this is a fantastic album. My problem with it is that there are a few songs here that are actually perfect and show what Grizzly Bear is capable of. Both Horn of Plenty and Yellow House interspersed their "wow" moments evenly throughout the album, often putting them in the middle of songs that meandered and explored musical space for a few minutes before really opening up. The result was fascinating and consistent. On Veckatimest, they have split their explorations and their explosions into different songs entirely, and it's incredibly frustrating to me. After hearing a Two Weeks or While You Wait for the Others, both of which are pop perfection all the way through, it becomes harder to want Grizzly Bear to meander on a song like Dory (easily the weakest track on here). So ultimately, the opening and closing of the album are some of the best I will hear all year, but the middle drags in a way that other Grizzly Bear albums haven't. Expand
  7. JimC
    May 30, 2009
    0
    I can't figure out for the life of me why everybody loves this so much. The songs are boring, the lyrics are sometimes hard to I can't figure out for the life of me why everybody loves this so much. The songs are boring, the lyrics are sometimes hard to understand, the mix is horrible and it makes me either want to fall asleep or kill myself. Just because someone makes an album of songs that sound different doesn't mean that it is automatically good. I bought this based on all these great reviews and I wish I didn't. Very disappointed in the listening public and critics. Expand

See all 58 User Reviews

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