Grizzly Bear Veckatimest
Grizzly Bear's Veckatimest opens like a coastal hymn, pairing immaculate harmonies with orchestral touches and immediate, front-loaded accessibility. Across 15 professional reviews the record earned an 86.07/100 consensus score, and critics consistently point to lead moments such as “Two Weeks”, “Southern Point” and “Cheerleader” as the album's clearest entry points. Those songs crystallize the band's gift for chamber-pop melody and textural ambition while the closing sequence, including “While You Wait for the Others” and “Foreground”, showcases the meticulous arrangements that reward repeated, active listening.
Reviewers praise the album's lush harmonies, organic production and democratic songwriting - the sense that multiple voices and approaches fold into a cohesive whole. Many accounts celebrate Veckatimest's balance of economy and extravagance: simple, memorable hooks sit alongside collage-like sonic layering, subtle orchestration and pastoral, Americana-inflected moods. Critics note occasional meandering in the record's center, describing moments where ambition edges toward indulgence, but the prevailing critical consensus emphasizes refinement, evocative production and melodic strength that make the best songs on Veckatimest repeatedly compelling.
Taken together the professional reviews frame Veckatimest as both a breakthrough in accessibility for the band and a work of fragile, careful ambition. For readers asking "is Veckatimest good" or "what are the best songs on Veckatimest," the answer emerging from critics is clear: its standout tracks are essential, the album's textures and harmonies repay close attention, and its 86.07 score across 15 reviews marks it as a critically acclaimed high point in Grizzly Bear's catalog, worth both first listens and long returns.
Critics' Top Tracks
The standout songs that made critics take notice
Two Weeks
11 mentions
"the stunning bounce of "Two Weeks""— Pitchfork
Cheerleader
6 mentions
"the backward guitar disrupting the lockstep girl-group groove of "Cheerleader,""— The A.V. Club
Southern Point
10 mentions
"the bitter retreat of the galloping opener "Southern Point""— The A.V. Club
the stunning bounce of "Two Weeks"
Track Ratings
How critics rated each track, relative to this album (0-100). Only tracks that made critics feel something are rated.
Southern Point
Two Weeks
All We Ask
Fine For Now
Cheerleader
Dory
Ready, Able
About Face
Hold Still
While You Wait For The Others
I Live With You
Foreground
What Critics Are Saying
Deep insights from 34 critics who reviewed this album
Critic's Take
Recorded in relative isolation, Grizzly Bear deliver on Veckatimest with songs that reward close listening, and the best tracks - notably “Two Weeks”, “Fine For Now” and “Foreground” - crystallise the album's strengths. The reviewer's voice lingers on the group’s perfect-of-pitch harmonies and entwined vocals, and it is “Fine For Now” that acts as a centrepiece, two or three songs playing out at once and climaxing in an explosion of colour. Meanwhile “Two Weeks” captures the overall vibe in four minutes, its warmth and swirling instrumentation making it one of the best songs on Veckatimest. As closer, “Foreground” is praised as perhaps the most elegant song the band have yet committed to tape, cementing why these are the album’s standout tracks.
Key Points
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‘Fine For Now’ is the album’s centrepiece, climaxing in an explosion of colour that showcases the band's unity.
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The album’s core strengths are flawless harmonies, careful economy in arrangements, and a rich, experimental production.
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Critic's Take
Grizzly Bear’s Veckatimest is a record where the best tracks - notably “Two Weeks” and “Cheerleader” - reveal the band’s uncanny gift for lush, airtight chamber pop. Paul Thompson writes with a measured, almost admiring impatience, praising the skyward swoon of “Cheerleader” and the stunning bounce of “Two Weeks” while noting how the album’s center wanders. He foregrounds the closing trio, and the narrative keeps returning to those peaks that make the album’s meticulous craft feel exhilarating. For readers asking which are the best songs on Veckatimest, Thompson’s ears point you first to “Two Weeks” and “Cheerleader” and then to the strong finale that includes “While You Wait for the Others” and “Foreground”.
Key Points
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The best song is 'Two Weeks' because the reviewer calls it a 'stunning bounce' and positions it as a central highlight.
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The album’s core strengths are meticulous composition, lush chamber-pop arrangements, and a powerful closing sequence despite a meandering center.
Themes
Critic's Take
Grizzly Bear's Veckatimest is at its clearest when it boils down to its best songs, chief among them “Two Weeks”, which the review names the record's high-water mark. Adam Clair writes with an admiring frustration - praising the lush orchestration and epic harmonies while noting the rest of the album often meanders, though tracks like “Ready, Able” and “I Live With You” provide memorable atmospheric moments. The narrative answers the question of the best tracks on Veckatimest by crowning “Two Weeks” and highlighting the album's chamber-pop strengths and occasional lack of full realization.
Key Points
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“Two Weeks” is best because of soaring vocals, epic harmonies, and immediate melodic clarity.
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The album's core strengths are its orchestral arrangements and consistent, purposeful instrumentation despite occasional meandering.
Themes
Critic's Take
Grizzly Bear's Veckatimest finds its best songs in the places where cushioned harmonies meet pop invention, notably “Cheerleader” and opener “Southern Point”. Michael Hann writes with precise, comparative calm, noting how the Beach Boys' "fat bass" anchors tracks like “Cheerleader” while “Southern Point” shifts from Tim Buckleyesque folk-jazz to something more urgent. That balance of tradition and invention is what makes the best tracks on Veckatimest linger in the ear, pairing pastoral yearning with decisive musical focus. The result is an album that sounds greater than the sum of its parts, and those songs stand out for marrying melody, harmony and structural adventurousness.
Key Points
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The best song(s) blend Beach Boys-style bass and rich harmonies with experimental American pop, exemplified by "Cheerleader".
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The album's core strength is its controlled melding of folk tradition, lush harmonies and structural variety that feels purposeful rather than indulgent.
Themes
Critic's Take
There are so many moments to love on Veckatimest, and the best tracks show why Grizzly Bear remain masters of texture. The reviewer's ear keeps returning to “Ready, Able” as a standout for its orchestral thrust, while “Two Weeks” is praised as an irresistible folk-pop gem. The record’s magic is the balance between foggy warmth and sudden intensity, which makes these best songs on Veckatimest so memorable.
Key Points
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The best song, "Ready, Able", is the record’s most immediate orchestral payoff and a clear standout.
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The album’s core strength is its balance of foggy, spacious atmospheres with sudden bursts of orchestral intensity.
Themes
Critic's Take
Grizzly Bear's Veckatimest repays expectation with the kind of meticulous, fragile beauty Charles Ubaghs praises, and the best songs - particularly “Cheerleader” and “Two Weeks” - show why. Ubaghs lingers on how pop and folk are re-configured into intimate, careful songs, and he points to “Cheerleader” as the clearest view of the album's beating heart. The reviewer's tone is admiring but wary of indulgence, stressing that Veckatimest's reward comes to those willing to give it time. This framing answers queries about the best tracks on Veckatimest by highlighting the album's standout moments and their compositional craft.
Key Points
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The best song, “Cheerleader”, is best because it re-configures vintage pop and folk into a careful, emotionally focused pop opus.
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The album's core strengths are meticulous arrangements, rich harmonies, and the democratic songwriting that yields finely balanced songs.
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Critic's Take
In his measured, slightly rueful tone the reviewer makes clear that Grizzly Bear's Veckatimest contains two undeniable radio-ready moments in “Two Weeks” and “While You Wait for the Others,” yet he keeps coming back to the closing gem “Foreground”. He praises the band's ambition and lush arrangements, but notes that the extra flourishes sometimes push songs into the middle of the road rather than revealing better songwriting. The piece reads like a reality check: catchy choruses and string arrangements broaden the audience, but the record would have benefited from more delicate tracks like “Foreground” that show why the band matters.
Key Points
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The best song is the closing "Foreground" because its spare piano and strings show the band at their most woven and affecting.
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Veckatimest’s strengths are ambitious arrangements and vocal harmonies, but excess embellishment sometimes obscures songwriting.
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Critic's Take
Unable to produce a reviewer-style narrative because the review text is missing. With no source text to preserve voice, I cannot reliably quote or reproduce the reviewer’s style to answer "best songs on Veckatimest" or highlight tracks like “Two Weeks” and “Southern Point” in the reviewer’s own words.
Key Points
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Cannot identify the best song because the review text is not provided.
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Cannot extract the album’s strengths without review content.
Critic's Take
In a voice equal parts urbane and pastoral, Grizzly Bear make Veckatimest feel like a sunlit discovery, where the best tracks - notably “Southern Point” and “Two Weeks” - open the record with aching choruses and chiming pop. The reviewer revels in how vocal interplay, from the chiming single “Two Weeks” to the chorus-rich “While You Wait For The Others”, carries the album more than any gimmick. Intimate pieces like “Hold Still” and “Foreground” repay patience, their sparse arrangements suggesting the grandmother’s house that inspired much of the record. The result is an accomplished, wistful album that flushes Grizzly Bear out of the bloggy undergrowth and into plain view.
Key Points
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“Southern Point” is best for opening with an expansive, soaring chorus that sets the album’s coastal mood.
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Veckatimest’s core strengths are its vocal interplay, careful production, and evocative, nostalgic atmosphere.
Themes
Critic's Take
Grizzly Bear’s Veckatimest finds its best songs in small, apposite details rather than bombast: the opener “Southern Point” registers as a bitter retreat, while “All We Ask” supplies the album’s hushed, heartbreaking refrain, and “Cheerleader” earns notice for that backward guitar disrupting its groove. Sean O'Neal writes with an amused, exacting warmth, cataloguing moments like the watery pivot in “Dory” and the cinemascope collapse of “I Live With You” as where the record’s brilliance actually lives. This makes queries about the best tracks on Veckatimest answerable in the same voice: these are the songs where subtle interlocking moments turn craft into thrill.
Key Points
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The best song moments are concise, textured moments like the 'hushed, heartbreaking refrain' of "All We Ask".
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Veckatimest’s core strength is its subtle, interlocking production that blends historical sounds into something forward-looking.
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Critic's Take
From the outset Grizzly Bear make clear on Veckatimest that the best songs are those that pair delicate songwriting with cinematic atmosphere. The opener “Southern Point” erupts from a driving banjo into a stunning prog-folk climax, while the buoyant “Two Weeks” and “While You Wait for the Others” let the melodies shimmer through the ambience. Yet the album’s true centerpieces are quieter: “Dory” and “Ready, Able” strip arrangements down to fragile, haunting balladry, which is why listeners asking "best songs on Veckatimest" will find those tracks most revealing. Overall, the record balances orchestral touches and choir-soaked grandeur with an intimate, ascetic heart, making these songs the highlights.
Key Points
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The best song is "Dory" because its stripped, poignant balladry serves as the album’s emotional centerpiece.
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Veckatimest’s core strengths are its balance of intimate, fragile songwriting and lush, orchestral ambience.
Themes
Critic's Take
The provided review text does not discuss Grizzly Bear or Veckatimest, so no reviewer-style narrative about the best songs on Veckatimest can be produced from the source material. Because the source is about a different artist and album, the review does not mention tracks such as “Two Weeks” or “Southern Point” and thus gives no basis for ranking or praise.
Key Points
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No best song can be determined because the review text does not address this album.
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There is no evaluative material about the album's strengths in the provided review text.
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Critic's Take
In a back-and-forth that reads like a barroom conversation, Grizzly Bear's Veckatimest is praised for its front-loaded gems - “Southern Point” and “Two Weeks” emerge as the best songs on Veckatimest, the former lauded for its eye-of-hurricane swells and the latter for hammock-like harmonies and a simple, compelling pulse. The reviewer voice toggles between exhilaration and wary admiration, calling the opening duo the most accessible work the band has done while insisting the rest of the album rewards active, repeated listening. There is admiration for the band's textural ambition and vocal interplay, even as one voice worries the record leans toward ornamentation over immediate hooks. Overall, the critic frames the best tracks as inevitable entry points into a richly baroque, atmospheric album.
Key Points
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The best song is best because its dynamic swells and composition make it a standout and an immediate entry point.
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The album's core strengths are intricate harmonies, textural ambition, and front-loaded accessibility that reward active listening.
Themes
Critic's Take
Grizzly Bear's Veckatimest feels like a cash-back bonus - the more you give, the grander the return, with standouts such as “Southern Point” and “Two Weeks” showcasing the band's craft. The reviewer lingers on the album's lush harmonies and clever arrangements, calling “Foreground” almost heavenly and praising “Fine For Now” for its climactic finale. This is not a wild ride but a patient, remarkable listen, and the best tracks on Veckatimest reward repeated attention.
Key Points
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The best song is best because it encapsulates the album's heavenly, soothing climax, as with "Foreground".
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The album's core strengths are lush harmonies, careful pacing, and a blend of simplicity and complexity.
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Critic's Take
Grizzly Bear's Veckatimest feels like a quietly triumphant leap, with songs such as “Two Weeks” and “Cheerleader” standing out as the album's brightest beacons. The reviewer revels in the record's newfound airiness and melodic clarity, praising how tracks like “Two Weeks” spring into daylight while “Cheerleader” luxuriates in sappy strings and falsetto. The voice is admiring but precise, insisting that these best tracks show the band refining their sound into something both era-less and instantly memorable. Ultimately, the best songs on Veckatimest earn their place by marrying modesty with unmistakable hooks and emotional breadth.
Key Points
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“Two Weeks” is best for its sudden daylight, confident hooks, and instant memorability.
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The album's strengths are its refined arrangements, airy sound, collaborative songwriting, and era-less wistfulness.
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