In Ear Park
Department of Eagles
Score:88
Reviewer: Steve Scully
Label: 4AD (USA & UK), Remote Control (Australia)
Reviewed: Oct 12th '08, Released:2008
Side-project, off-shoot, mistress, bit-on-the-side: whatever you call it, it’s a common thing nowadays for members of successful (and unsuccessful) bands to have a second outlet for their creative juices. You can now add Grizzly Bear’s Dan Rossen to this list.
While Grizzly Bear still resides underground, with naught but a devoted fan base and one excellent album to their name (Yellow House), Rossen has reverted to his pre-band activities. Before there was Grizzly Bear, Rossen and his friend Fred Nicolaus had Department of Eagles. A great deal of In Ear Park bears striking similarities to Grizzly Bear: the reverb-heavy vocals and subtle melodic hooks in particular. In Ear Park is, however, more dense and ingenious a record than anything Grizzly Bear has produced thus far.
Something that resonates so strongly after just the first listen to In Ear Park is that it is beautifully and strikingly relevant, and Department of Eagles is firmly in touch with the Zeitgeist (look to Fleet Foxes and Bon Iver for 2008’s examples of indie music’s current climate). The graceful waltz of opening track ‘In Ear Park’ weaves its magic around a slow-burning piano and culminates in an off-kilter, depressant-laden carnival atmosphere. Synth and subtle electro techniques are embraced in understated folk gems like ‘Phantom Other’, while that organic, musician’s touch is maintained: strings and simple guitar form the basis for the superb ‘Teenagers’, vocal harmonies and piano and a slight acoustic guitar play off one another to create the stunningly quirky Beatles-esque ‘Herring Bone’.
Department of Eagles find their feet on a variety of terrains: the quiet folk of ‘Floating on the Lehigh’; the Classic rock, Kinks-ish feel of ‘No One Does It’ (with a rhythm that sounds like it’s been taken right off Tom Waits’ Real Gone album); the strong dynamic shifts and almost ‘noise pop’ crescendo of ‘Waves of Rye’. In every way, the band shows that they are not only consummate musicians and songwriters, but attuned perfectly to the needs and desires of pop listeners. In each song resides either a hook or an ingenious structural or instrumental moment, either of which catches your attention and requires a re-listen.
Rossen may need to wrest himself from the clutches of Department of Eagles soon to satisfy his Grizzly Bear teammates, but in light of this record I’m yet to be convinced that it would be the wisest option. In Ear Park may find a great deal of higher-profile competition for album of the year, but for sheer cleverness, pop nous and consistency, it matches its opposition with ease.
