Aquarian
Grizzly Bear
"Aquarian" reaches outward where most of Painted Ruins turns inward. There's a spaciousness to the production that evokes the era the title invokes — the late-sixties idealism of the Age of Aquarius — but filtered through enough contemporary distance that it reads as longing rather than nostalgia. The guitar work is expansive and ringing, the tempo unhurried, and there's a quality of openness in the harmonic structure that the album's denser tracks deliberately deny. Rossen's voice here has an almost hymn-like quality, delivering the melody with the slightly removed gravity of someone who has thought hard about what they're asking for and isn't sure it's possible. The song is about seeking — the particular human need to believe in collective transformation, in the possibility that things could be arranged better, that the age of something better is still coming. It carries both the beauty and the melancholy of that belief: beautiful because the aspiration is real, melancholy because the certainty isn't. You'd find this song useful at the edge of something — the end of a relationship, the start of a new city, the morning after an election — any moment when you need music that takes seriously the question of whether hope is warranted.
medium
2010s
spacious, ringing, warm
American indie rock
Indie Rock, Folk Rock. Psychedelic Folk. nostalgic, melancholic. Opens with expansive longing and moves toward a bittersweet acceptance that hope is beautiful precisely because it is uncertain.. energy 4. medium. danceability 2. valence 5. vocals: slightly detached male vocals, hymn-like gravity, searching. production: ringing expansive guitar, open harmonic structure, unhurried arrangement. texture: spacious, ringing, warm. acousticness 6. era: 2010s. American indie rock. At the edge of a major life transition — end of a relationship, start of a new city — when you need music that takes hope seriously.