Submitted by Rohan, who holds some strong opinions about music and wants to share them with TNG readers.

The year 2009 has been a year where once “experimental” artists have made “pop-friendly” or “accessible” records. Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavilion is their most accessible record to date, and Dirty Projectors have proven that they can write pop songs (see new single “Stillness is the Move”), while formerly “pop” oriented bands have created their most inaccessible and alienating records. (The Decemberists I’m looking at you.) Following the shift from experimental to “pop,” “Everybody’s Favorite New York Band,” Grizzly Bear, has made their most accomplished record to date: Veckatimest.

Grizzly Bear, once a solo project of lead band-member and fellow queer, Ed Droste, has evolved into a full band, comfortable with its sound. 2006’s Yellow House was Grizzly Bear’s first recording as a four-piece, and though the record is gorgeous and expansive, it is the epitome of a “grower.” Since Yellow House, the band improved their live chops, released a stop-gap EP (2007’s Friend), worked on side-projects (Daniel Rossen’s Department of Eagles), and even landed a tour with Radiohead.

In 2008, Grizzly Bear did something few bands ever do: play late-night shows without anything to properly promote. Even more surprising, they played new songs “While You Wait for the Others” and the pop epic, “Two Weeks,” giving fans the first taste of what was to come on Veckatimest. While this built up excitement for what was to come, it also set the bar high, as “Two Weeks” is a stunner.

While Veckatimest is not 12 copies of “Two Weeks,” it is still an enjoyable LP full of high quality craftsmanship. Veckatimest is a true full band affair, and it shows. “Two Weeks,” in its finished form, is an immediate highlight with doo wop driven Oh’s and Ah’s and otherworldly backing vocals from Beach House’s Victoria LeGrand. Elsewhere, tracks like “Southern Point,” “All We Ask,” and “Ready, Able” resemble more assured versions of Yellow House numbers. The later features orchestral arrangements by gay composer Nico Muhly, who also contributed arrangements to three other cuts.

The Brooklyn Girls Choir adds to Grizzly Bear’s trademark vocal assault, especially on highlight: “Cheerleader.” “Cheerleader” rides on a steady beat with interjections of sharp guitar strums and clap while vocals build to an intense peak and steady fall, much like the progression of “Knife.” “While You Wait for the Others” is the most guitar oriented song on the record, appearing more refined from its early live inception. Like most Grizzly tracks, closing track, “Foreground” has expert vocal work that glides on a sparse piano and an outro by the Brooklyn Girls Choir.

Veckatimest, like all Grizzly Bear albums, is not easily digested in one listen, but it is their most straightforward album so-far, and it can only mean great things for the band in the future.

Grizzly Bear are currently on tour and play 9:30 Club June 1^st with (we owe our career to both Grizzly Bear and the Internet) Here We Go Magic