It’s been a good long while since we had new Grizzly Bear music. Painted Ruins came out in 2017 — that’s five years ago! Shields (their best album and I’m glad we all agree) turns 10 this year. That time I saw them play “Two Weeks” at Lollapalooza a year before Veckatimest came out? Feels like a different lifetime, and not just because I clanged my head on a metal bar during Foals’ set the same day. Unfortunately, the band is not about to emerge with a new LP at this moment. But friends, the next best thing is upon us.

Daniel Rossen, one of Grizzly Bear’s two primary songwriters alongside Ed Droste, is about to release his debut solo album. It’s called You Belong There, and it’s dropping in April via Warp. Given that the press says he is “re-energized by the act of unfettered expression and newfound self-sovereignty,” I would not expect him to partner with Droste again anytime soon, but that’s just speculation.

Fortunately, it seems like You Belong There is going to be awesome. Lead single “Shadow In The Frame,” out today, exemplifies the kind of vivid, proggy chamber-indie Rossen has always specialized in. His virtuosic guitar work is front and center, accented by swells of brass and woodwinds and his trembling vocals, powerful yet fragile. It’s good shit. You should listen to it.

TRACKLIST:
01 “It’s A Passage”
02 “Shadow In The Frame”
03 “You Belong There”
04 “Unpeopled Space”
05 “Celia”
06 “Tangle”
07 “I’ll Wait For Your Visit”
08 “Keeper And Kin”
09 “The Last One”
10 “Repeat The Pattern”

You Belong There is out 4/8 via Warp.