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iTunes Review

What we have here are 10 tracks from post-rock/electro-folksters Grizzly Bear and friends, featuring guest artists doing covers of songs from the band’s previous release, Yellow House (Brazilian dance-punkers CSS and Deerhunter’s Bradford Cox present starkly different versions of “Knife;” Band of Horses offer a lovely hillbilly rendition of “Plans”), and additional friends collaborating with the band on songs old and new.  The first track, “Alligator,” is taken from 2004’s Horn of Plenty, and is reworked here into a full-bodied, shimmering and slowly explosive rock song of The next track is a cover of the twisted 1960s pop song by the Crystals, “He Hit Me (It Felt Like A Kiss).”  Grizzly Bear takes the original, bizarrely romantic Phil Spector arrangement to an appropriately darker place, leading a fragile intro into a barrage of thundering, violent guitars. The live version of “Little Brother” (from Yellow House) is truly epic in feel, and is a persuasive argument for seeing Grizzly Bear in a live setting. From there, each song’s flavor veers widely, leaving grandiosity for experimental ambience, funkified electronics, and low-fi charm (GB member Daniel Rossen’s home-recorded version of the traditional song “Deep Blue Sea” is not to be missed).