Album Review: Painted Ruins by Grizzly Bear

Irony is not dead; it’s been upgraded. Major label money funded Arcade Fire’s Everything Now, a gag album marketed as such, once the sort of thing only possible on an off-major release like the Melvins’ Prick. In the pivotal 13th episode of Showtime’s Twin Peaks revival, David Lynch followed an impeccably arranged, equally hip lineup of Roadhouse performers with a “live” reprise of (cool) James Hurley’s long-maligned “Just You”.

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While Grizzly Bear’s 2012 album Shields dealt with the interpersonal barriers we construct and hide behind, their follow-up focuses on what happens when façades crumble and reveal our vulnerabilities. Though Painted Ruins examines fractured relationships--band member Ed Droste recently ….

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Five years is considered an eternity between records within the contemporary climate of the music world. However, where three years of agonised, vice-grip creation and destruction preceded Grizzly Bear's 2012's multi-dimensional effort 'Shields', the five years of space following has worked in their favour -- leading to the conception of a creature that breathes confidently with a heavy sense of hyper-ambition in 'Painted Ruins'. As admitted on the fatalist drive of nocturnal cut 'Mourning Sound': "I made a mistake; I never should have tried.

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