Veckatimest (Bonus Track Version)

In the few short years of their existence, Brooklyn's Grizzly Bear has taken their cavernous, whispery indie pop to the peaks of critical acclaim while stacking up a new set of building blocks as reference points. Vecktatimest continues the trajectory, working on a more epic level, but still providing a kind of hand-crafted, weird Americana feeling via their sparse arrangements and echoing, deep-in-the-basement feel. "All We Ask" is a triumph that has a stuttering, layered '50s pop rhythm but with vocal arrangements that are somewhere between an Eliot Smith heart-wringing folk song and a tropical outtake from South Pacific. It's the vocals that stand out the most, riding on top of the crashing cymbals on tracks like "Fine For Now" and hovering in the clouds on "Cheerleader". Veckatimest is an ornate collection of left-field pop music, at once familiar and curious, and also one of the sweetest, and more moving pop albums you're likely to hear.