In 2008, Fleet Foxes released their self-titled debut LP. In 2009, Grizzly Bear released their third album, Veckatimest. Both, deservedly, received much fanfare and in 2010 there seemed, for me at least, an uncanny need to identify which of these budding indie-folk rock projects to endorse.
So which is the better bear? Natural selection would favor the larger grizzly, but will OMO?
While the Fleet Foxes came out strong with ‘White Winter Hymnal’, which set the stage for a rich debut album, the Bears found perfection in Veckatimest.
‘Two Weeks’ and ‘While You Wait for the Others’ become the instant standouts, but enjoyment is also quickly found in the cohesion GB achieves throughout the 12 tracks: bridging the soaring cascades in songs like ‘Fine For Now’ and ‘I Live With You‘ with the gentle joggings of an ‘About Face’.
Even at present, Grizzly Bear has the Foxes beat. Helplessness Blues had big shoes to fill in 2011, but apart from ‘The Shrine/An Argument’ music video, I never found a song to hang my hat on. Whereas GB’s fourth effort, Shields (out Sept. 18), already has me begging for more. Take ‘Sleeping Ute’.
‘
‘
Not to distract you from the song, but when I went looking for header imaging I came across the following video; which, when muted, pairs well with the music. Enjoy.
‘
‘
So there you have it, OMO confirms natural selection (this time around) and predicts Grizzly Bear to be the more lasting of the two.
OneMinuteOne 
January 26th, 2013 → 11:27 pm
[…] the year, OMO asked which band was the better recent folk indie project: Grizzly Bear or Fleet Foxes? After siding with the animal natural selection too favors, the four-man collective delivered their […]