Grizzly Bear: Friend EP

Label: Warp

Grizzly Bear made a hazy, compelling album with last year’s Yellow House. What makes the band even more appealing than simply their work in the studio, though, is their ability to translate it to the live setting—“translate” being the key word. With the exception of three Grizzly Bear covers from a diverse array of their contemporaries (CSS, Atlas Sound, and Band of Horses), this EP burgeons with the band remaking and rethinking their own work. It again sounds like something not quite alien, like a band hundreds of years from now compiling its take on the 20th-century songbook. “Little Brother (Electric)” hits on a visceral level, while “Alligator (Choir Version)” brings in members of Beirut and Dirty Projectors to further expand the group’s already expansive sound. In the end, it works both as a companion piece to Yellow House (and even their earlier Horn of Plenty) and a solid indication of the band’s range at the end of 2007. And with 11 songs totalling more than 40 minutes of music, this is one hell of a bargain. (Tobias)