“While You Wait for the Others” by Grizzly Bear

"While You Wait for the Others" is the knottiest, most thrilling thing on Veckatimest, Grizzly Bear's third album, and it went out as a single in August 2009. Daniel Rossen takes the lead vocal, riding a melody that keeps swerving just when you think you've got hold of it, and bassist Chris Taylor produced and engineered it, with Gareth Jones adding to the mix. The writing credit goes to Rossen, Taylor, Ed Droste and Christopher Bear.

Pitchfork handed the track its first-ever perfect ten and later put it at 334 in its list of the top 500 tracks of the 2000s. The single's flip side is the stranger story: the same backing track with Michael McDonald of the Doobie Brothers singing lead, a hookup that ran through the father of Taylor's ex-girlfriend, a bassist from the yacht rock world.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.