Diandra Reviews It All

Painted Ruins sounds like an interesting, imaginative concept. You can picture rubble and scraps being colorfully glazed over as organs play, and people try to make the ashes of something that was once beautiful into another staple of beauty. This idea is what makes Grizzly Bear’s Painted Ruins a fascinating listen. Amongst the dilapidation of dreams and regal facades, comes a sound and swag that matches mystic with psychedelic.
Grizzly Bear – Mourning Sound (Official Video)

When you think of psych-rock, it feels spiritual, but is it mystical? For me, the latter has a sense of magic to it, which makes the mind feel taken to feudal worlds, while spiritual, takes the heart to ones of inner faith. Yet, when you listen to tracks like, “Three Rings”, “Four Cypresses”, and “Aquarian”, you fee like you are waltzing through Winterfell getting ready for war. Grizzly Bear have an undercurrent of royalty to their sounds, as if they want each drumroll, chord, and synth to sound like the step of King towards his torn throne. No song goes without a sense of loss or feeling held back as in, “Wasted Acres” or “Losing All Sense”. Yet, for a feeling that is so negative, Painted Ruins sounds so magical. Stars twinkle in the form of keys that shine around the voice of Chris Bear such as in, “Systole” or “Glass Hillside”. Bear has a mellow, melodic voice that describes the war of his thoughts, feelings, and situations like his eyes are cameras that pan in and out of his Iife; for all that he sees before him, he can also see what will come next. The gift of foresight is, actually, more common than believed. We all heard of terms like “red flags” and intuition, but we only capture them after we tossed them away from instant gratification or an unwillingness to let go of our drive. Thus, you, as a listeners, zoom into Grizzly Bear’s lyrics because they are casually insightful and igniting, and discuss what emotionally happens to us when we acknowledge what we knew would for wrong about a situation after it has already doneso. There is something fascinating or, at least, attractively different to a calm voice that still speaks and sparks to the freneticism of life.
Grizzly Bear – Neighbors (Official Video)

Painted Ruins is excellent. It truly holds the drama, intelligence, and human layers of a movie or television show. Why? Becuase Grizzly Bear has gone beyond sound to make you SEE their music. Every instrumental is arranged with a picture, and, for Painted Ruins, their images are about a world and people repairing life from what it was to, again, make it into a new beauty. Whether or not you or they succeed in reconstructing their “ruins” is not the point because, as their album shows, something inside all of us always makes us try again. We all HAVE to rebuild; it is in our human nature. For More Information On Grizzly Bear And To Buy Painted Ruins On August 18 Click Here.
Grizzly Bear – Three Rings