Do You Remember The First Time? #3 Grizzly Bear - On A Neck, On A Spit

Most music critics and their dogs will have you believe that 2009's Veckatimest was Grizzly Bear's masterpiece-to-date, the album we'd been waiting for them to deliver. They're wrong. Whilst there's plenty to admire about the meticulously arranged avante-pop of Veckatimest, it was distinctly lacking in the atmosphere that was dripping from their preceding album, Yellow House. Possibly my favourite album of 2006, Yellow House was a haunting set of songs; enticing you in with the wispy flutes of Easier, the album guided you by the hand through what felt like a rich undergrowth; songs like Little Brother chitter with wildlife. But that warm welcome is quickly withdrawn and a feeling of unease sets in, as supicious voices whisper incoherently around you. Guitars creak and roar into life like tree branches moving in the wind. Ghostly ballads like Plans and Marla give a genuine sense of the creeps. By the time the album's brooding closer Colorado comes to an end you feel like you've come through an ordeal, and yet as you look back and see the sun peeking through the foliage, you can't help but want to wander in again.

I was introduced to Grizzly Bear via its centrepiece On A Neck, On A Spit, and it remains my favourite song of theirs. In many ways, it encapsulates everything that is so great about Grizzly Bear, both then and now. The song's first half is hushed and rustic, threatening to burst into life with thick stabs of acoustic guitar  and rumbling guitars before withdrawing once more. Then a rich, nimble acoustic guitar line threads its way in and the song steadily picks up momentum, leading to the kind of barnstorming climax that the band have perhaps become just a little too over-reliant on ever since. But here it feels like rich reward for riding with the song's highs and lows.

In recent performances, the band have done away with the song's first half and cut straight to the chase, which says a lot about the band's subsequent musical trajectory. Here it is in full, as it should be heard: