Is epic too big a word for Shields, Grizzly Bear's newest and 4th LP in twice that many years? Perhaps. I've read it called Baroque which is kinda nice as it reminds me of that church-facade I climbed one late night in Venice many moons ago. Whatever you want to call it, Shields is one wonder of a record filled with layers of references on top of lovely songs (and sounds). Dreamy one minute, driving the next, atmospheres and beats collide and join forces to make for one heckofa twisty turny record. And its sounds sound good, too. Shields has already hit a few "Best of 2012" lists and even though I don't have one I'll throw it on.

I found a "Quality Studio Master" download of Shields which in this case means 24/44.1 which is sure to cause some to complain especially since you have to pay a premium for it (14.99€). So if the idea that 24/44.1 is (or isn't) in fact "Quality Studio Master" rubs you the wrong way, you can always buy the regular-old 16/44.1 FLAC version from Qobuz (11.99€) or Bleep has it for less ($9.99). Or you could buy the double LP ($21.99) which comes with a free MP3 download and rip your own 24/192 version. Or, you could get the CD ($14.99) and rip that! but all you get for your extra $5.00 over the price of the FLAC download is some polycarbonate plastic, metal, paper and the MP3 and we all know you can just make your own MP3 from the FLAC download for free. And I only mention this next bit for completeness sake, Bleep and Qobuz also sell just the MP3 for $8.99 and 9.99€ respectively. That's like buying a ham and cheese sandwich without the cheese for a buck less than the ham and cheese sandwich that has the cheese and wondering why your cheaper ham and cheese sandwich doesn't taste like a ham and cheese sandwich.

The "Qualité studio Master" of Grizzly Bear's Shields, one heckofa twisty turny record, is available from Qobuz.