Yellow House
Grizzly Bear
Warp Records
SCQ Rating: 76%
My first trip to Yellow House was an uneasy one. Like most, I was immediately entranced by the swirling melodies and driving strum of banjo on opener ‘Easier’. I appreciated the near doo-wap rhythm of ‘Knife’ and dug the Beach Boys-esque harmonizing on ‘Little Brother’. Then I stopped listening to it. Each time I’d prepare to walk out into another day, my finger would breeze past its ominous cover cautiously before settling on something else. While I couldn’t pinpoint any reason, I was at arm’s length from the record and the worst part was, I began feeling as though the record wasn’t giving me the chance.
A week in New Hampshire changed all that. For all its multi-layered vocals, complex arrangements, haunting woodwinds and dreamy autoharps, Yellow House’s great strength is its subtlety; that amidst such wonderfully imaginative song arrangements and a broad spectrum of sounds, each song manages to make the listener feel terribly alone. Perhaps it was crawling the Appalachians at the dusk of a ten hour drive, or staying in a century old farmhouse surrounded by woods, but the downward crunch of ‘Lullabye’ took upon a heftier significance, the gentle vocals of ‘Reprise’ felt like echoes from the New England evergreens. My running pace turned to a sprint as ‘On a Neck, On a Spit’ struck its gorgeous climax; a rocking centerpiece to a restrained album. And closing song ‘Colorado’, with its menacing piano and drenched effects, was felt in each heap of snow like a reminder that if I were to take a wrong turn, this landscape might swallow me whole.
If it sounds like I’m reaching here, you haven’t given the record its opportunity. This is a record for wandering adrift, getting lost, exploring new lands and finding comfort in old houses.
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