Track Listing

1. Easier
2. Lullabye
3. Knife
4. Central and Remote
5. Little Brother
6. Plans
7. Marla
8. On a Neck, On a Spit
9. Reprise
10. Colorado

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1737 in Music
• Released on: 2006-09-05
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .23 pounds

Album Description
"Magical, haunting melodies are Grizzly Bear's mainstay. A band that won't jilt you; they always craft their songs from start to finish--and meticulous instrumentation and arrangements are their specialty. On "Yellow House", Grizzly Bear still flexes its lo-fi connoisseurship, but with a better recording--still totally DIY, now embellished with fine sonic engineering."

Amazon.com
It's a rare thing to find a band that counts the glockenspiel, autoharp, banjo, and flute as key instruments, especially when it's a rock band with just four members. Grizzly Bear use all the above instruments plus another dozen or so to make the 10 floating, gossamer, low-lit tunes that comprise Yellow House. They are rounded edges, off-kilter waltzes ("Lullabye," which teeters tipsily), laconic vignettes, and even a vintage 1930s waltz written by singer Edward Droste's great-aunt. The meshwork here is Grizzly Bear's smarts, a banjo lending fleeting rhythmic hints to a guitar-picked melody ("Reprise"), a haunted piano filling the sonic air with smoke. All four members sing duskily and softly, making a slow-going atmosphere that would delight the great composer Morton Feldman. The brilliance here is that every song mesmerizes, not with aural dominance but with an atmospheric magnetism. --Andrew Bartlett

ID
"An album of unusual beauty."

Customer Reviews

my house may not be yellow, but grizzly bear has found a home
I normally don't do reviews on Amazon, in large part to the fact that most people reading them have already formed their opinion on the item in question. Grizzly Bear's Yellow House is a prime example of this unfortunate pattern. The chance of an "average" reader wandering into this area without some appreciation for the genre will be rare. However, I was such a reader, so I figured I would give it a shot.

In my opinion, I have not heard anything that comes as close to audio art as Yellow House. It is very clear that the band spent an enormous amount of time and effort polishing each indvidual song, which alone is impressive, but also blended the entire album catalog so the sounds were cohesive, flowing, almost like a long poem. They use a tremendous amount of instruments, fading and editing, and room space to create a haunting and magical atmosphere.

At first listen, what might be mistaken as mild chaos at times will later showcase a tremendous amount of control and management of sound. No doubt layering techniques are used on some tracks, but it's hard to tell what effects are natural (like playing an instrument far away from the sound stage) versus fabricated at a sound board. Plus, the band is able to reproduce a lot of their sound live; a must for any artist who wishes to be taken seriously.

All pretention aside, I am really glad I found Yellow House. I can enjoy it on so many levels, from playing it in the background of a party, or just mellowing out with the old lady and a good book. If you're considering buying it or on the fence in your decision, you won't regret your purchase. This one is going to last you a long time and has a timeless, breathtaking sound.

Welcome Home
The lo-fi neo-psychedelia freak-folk of "Yellow House" is not so easily described. Hence the rather amorphous appellates "lo-fi" and "neo-psychedelia" and "freak-folk." Listening to the album (over and over again), a lot of descriptions came to mind...

The Beach Boys, minus the beach ("Knife").

A moon-powered TV on the Radio ("On A Neck, On A Spit").

A tamed-n-trained Animal Collective ("Easier").

Hot Chip on ice ("Little Brother").

If none of that makes any sense to you (and who can blame you?), let it be enough to say that Grizzly Bear's sophomore LP is as warm and silky as sudsy bathwater. The quartet utilizes banjos, laptops, and flutes (among other, more traditional instruments) to create something so atmospheric, so emotional, so good that at times it's just plain heart-wrenching.

Named after one of the band members' mother's home, where the album was recorded, the album is just as inviting as a return to the loamy roots of nostalgia. The apogee of cool soul sonics, "Yellow House" is big enough to live in, but as cozy as a warm embrace.

Yellow House
The old cliché about the parallel between sound and location pops up here in an endearing way: Yellow House was recorded in singer/guitarist Edward Droste's mother's house--yellow, of course--on the outskirts of Boston. The domicile's creakiness and mustiness permeates these uniformly lovely songs, giving them the homespun feel of something that's been sewn together in an old rocking chair. Grizzly Bear uses the full band at its disposal by gracefully piling instruments atop each other, and their solid group dynamic allows them to focus on ancillary yet important elements like mood and album flow. Some have griped that the production is too tinny for something this sweeping, but if it doesn't sound like a Sony cash cow, it does have the air of a time capsule, dug up and played on the Victrola for the first time in decades. It's the final magic touch on a thoroughly accomplished and enjoyable record.