animal collective

music for animals.

m.

anybody pick up any of their t-shirts on their last tour? i bought one. bright turquoise with flourescent designs akin to danse manatee the art! it's too small sadly. the wife wears it.

m.

this is brill

I mean it as something positive -- these are records I listen to in a less-than-conscious way. Maybe akin to what Eno was talking about way back when regarding his "ambient" music, but with a more organic (shitty word, sorry) feel.

details

www.fat-cat.co.uk

fat cat are also releasing their last two albums as a double cd in the u.k. next monday so i will finally get to hear them.

God bless them. I hope that Avey Tare eventually comes around to making more "pop" records at some point, though. I think that melody, lyrics, and structure suits their style very well. I can appreciate the crazier, more free-form music, but it doesn't move me nearly as much.

RE: Kompakt gig...Panda Bear has performed while singing on top of Other Music's Scotty Mau(a fantastic DJ) before, they called themselves "Jane"

Santigold also cancelled recently also exposing how unsustainable touring has become.

I’d imagined that a bigger indie act like Animal Collective wouldn’t face this challenges but the situation seems grim.

It will also become a domino effect I think, smaller venues breaking down and indie artists finding it harder and harder to do large tours. I think for international tours, indie acts will only be sustainable on big festivals and short circuits in the dates around the festival.

Truss crashing the pound made it uneconomical for US bands to get paid in sterling?

I was stunned when the pound came close to matching the dollar (coming within a dime). I didn't know how bad it was until I placed a Discogs order from a vendor in the UK and the total in U.S. dollars seemed completely off.

yeah exchange rates are clearly a big part of the problem (as they mention), the us dollar is extremely strong at the moment, going beyond just the insanity of the uk

also ticket sales are probably down in general due to tough economic conditions + every act in existence trying to tour this year but no idea how much of a factor that would have been for them

Also, AC are not selling as they used to maybe?

i doubt it for reasons of popularity when this year's album was their best received in over a decade

Sadly in this day and age critical plaudits are not necessarily an indicator of popularity or ability to sell tickets.

Sadly in this day and age critical plaudits are not necessarily an indicator of popularity or ability to sell tickets.

Idk about the other dates but they sold out Madison Wisconsin

they seemed to maintain their popularity pretty well even when they had a few less well-received albums

Spirit *finally* gets a reissue, with a bonus 3rd LP to boot

https://www.dominomusic.com/releases/animal-collective/spirit-theyre-gone-spirit-theyve-vanished-remastered-2023/exclusive-limited-triple-lp

this album is special and I'll definitely be buying it but man I really hope the remaster tones down some of those insane frequencies

really looking forward to hearing that "dreams" cover

why would you want to tone down the extreme sonics? it's what makes that album so special! i've still never heard anything like it, ever. the drumming is immaculate, and to think it was recorded to tape is even more impressive.

because it gives me tinnitus

^^^ yeah this remaster is incredible, still sounds like it was recorded at home but without sounding like a home recording, if you know what I mean. it does tone down the sonics a *little*. people say they're amazed that a 17 year old made all this but to me it sounds like something *only* a teenager could write. the difference is it's actually good

Incredible album. Frequencies definitely part of it. Maybe I am still a teenager at heart but I don’t know why it seems like something *only* a teenager could write (barring some self-indulgence, but no more self-indulgent than many adult artists). Some great lyrical chops, perhaps a little on the nose for some in places (April and the phantom in particular. I am fine with on the nose though!). April and the phantom, Penny Dreadfuls, and Alvin Row remain some of the best AnCo stuff every done to me. The thing that makes this album unique in their catalogue is the story-tale quality of most of the lyrics. Slight notes of it in Strawberry Jam and Feels, but the stories are far more extensive in Spirit (and seem less “personal”, though I am sure they probably are).

new album sounding pretty good on this flood-y morning. "stride rite" is exactly what i want out of animal collective these days.

Animal Collective - Time Skiffs (2022)

i posted about it in the time skiffs thread when it leaked a few weeks ago and it's pretty good, just really falls off with the last two songs.

yeah panda probably should’ve kept “all the clubs are broken” in the vault or reworked it for his next album with sonic boom

This new one was reminding me a bit of mid-late era Stereolab even before "Gem & I".

The vocal harmonies on the second track give me serious Alice In Chains vibes. (Mind you nothing else about the song reminds me of AIC).

hah I hear it too! is it maybe the backing voice is an octave lower and it's a descending melody? feels kinda grungey.

really digging this one as well. dunno if it's better than Skiffs (it probably is) but it definitely feels weightier. 2nd half of "Magicians from Baltimore" is pretty cool, playing a jauntey ragtime piano melody over a song that's like half the tempo it needs to be is a real signature AnCo moment I think

"Defeat" maybe their best song yet. though I guess that's cheating. ending part really gives me chills. was so cool to hear this live before anyone knew what it was, I thought it was like 3 new songs in a row

don't mind the last 2 tracks but it feels like "Stride Rite" is the last track and these are bonuses. I actually love "All the Clubs are Broken", it sounds like a playground song! and "King's Walk" sounds really cool! I mean you do vocal harmonies really well why not give this sort of thing a shot just once

I need to catch up with them, the last I heard from them was the “meeting of waters” ep which I liked a lot but haven’t been in the mood for Animal Collective in the past 5+ years.

the most recent two albums are definitely a return to form and in some ways the best they've ever sounded

Idk about “Return to form”, first of all I really like Centipede and PW, secondly they haven’t really sounded this mellow before have they? But yeah could argue these are two of their very best

actually I take that back, this is like the album Fall be Kind was hinting at

On first listen this seems a lot "straighter" than most of the stuff I know by them. 'Soul Capturer' sounds like a more accessible of something off Feels, and it seems to have quite a uniform sound. But I need to listen more. If it's anything like Fall Be Kind then I'm interested

If this is in the same vein as Fall Be Kind I’m sold. That’s probably the best thing they ever did.

Along with Prospect Hummer, yup. Thos eare the two I would mostly be interested in listening to these days.

That said, I don't hear it - it's a pleasant listen but I'm hearing their most "indie rock" oriented work so far; like they're going back to their original influences of bands like Pavement, and yes Stereolab. It's also quite a slow album - not many uptempo tracks here. Quite pleasant to have on in the background so far, and I'm quite glad for the lack of low-key highly annoying noises they are sometimes wont to litter around their records

Rather enjoying the extended track 'Defeat' though

Haha, it goes full on Pacific Ocean Blue in the second half. Love this track

Ok not listening the influence of Fall Be Kind, or not exclusively at least… it’s more of a synthesized version of their whole career?

Really like how this is probably their album - haven’t heard a lot of what they’ve been doing in the past years tho - with the most emphasis on drums and bass on the mix, but I can understand if some people might not like how it sounds.

I can definitely hear the Stereolab influence somewhere in there and also a lot of dub in the bass and the way it’s mixed clearly at the upfront.

Agreed that the two last tracks could have been cut off. “Stride Rite” would have been a great closer. I do wish the piano solo was mixed higher in that one.

Overall not bad, much better than what I would have expected.

I'm quite glad for the lack of low-key highly annoying noises they are sometimes wont to litter around their records

100% agree, also these new ones have less of Avey's yelps which I appreciate as well

'Stride Rite' really doesn't sound much like them at all. Makes me think of Lambchop or any of those Americana bands who occasionally stray into Sinatra-esque swing-balladry. Very nice. Yes, would have been a perfect closer

maybe it's just specific sounds that reminded me of FBK, maybe all the layered vocal bits like in "What Would I Want? Sky" or how these calm passages would suddenly explode into something else like in "Graze". or maybe how the last part of "Defeat" sounds like an even more stony version of "On a Highway".

that said a lot of people on here disagree with my "sounds like x" comparisons so take it with a grain of salt :)

Xpost: “Stride Rite” is a Deakin song. If you haven’t heard “sleep cycle” it’s one of the better projects related to AnCo I’ve heard.

they've done plenty of floaty piano songs like "stride rite" before - first half of "graze" (there's your fall be kind comparison), "daffy duck", "safer", etc.

people just coming to this album should also listen to time skiffs which is this one's sibling (the material was written at the same time, and only ended up on two albums due to recording constraints caused by the pandemic) and a little better. it's even more like mpp/fall be kind, it's like the chiller moments from those filtered through 70s exotica

Defeat is awesome. First part is reminiscent of "bees" (my maybe favourite song from feels). Love when AnCo loses the drums and geologist gets to do his thing. You can tell they ain't kids anymore with this one

This while album is incredible, almost exactly what I wanted to hear from these guys at this point. Just an incredible run since Time Skiffs and I hope it continues.

This is the first time since 2005 that this band will make it into my top ten albums list.

"defeat" has more than a little side 5 of tales from topographic oceans realness

The mood and the melody of Deakin’s song “Stride Rite” called to mind one of my favorite Josh Ritter songs,“Myrna Loy”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0_b7wM5-mY

It's easily one of their best albums

Yes!

"defeat" has more than a little side 5 of tales from topographic oceans realness

definitely in A) the sheer amount of lyrics and B) the fact that it takes forever to get going

I like it more than any of the TFTO tracks as a whole though

hearing this live was probably one of my coolest show experiences ever - I try to not look at setlists beforehand, all I knew was they were likely gonna play some new stuff. I had no idea they were gonna play so much of it, much less a tune that was 23 minutes long. once it got to the ending bit I remember looking behind me and just seeing a sea of transfixed faces, nobody was talking or making any noise. I've never quite seen a general admission concert get like that before.

At the show i went to, my friend wouldn’t shut up his mouth through the whole thing. Still good though.

I keep forgetting about this.

So have most publication year end lists, so you’re not alone!

you know what I actually like the way the album ends. I think given the downtrodden nature of the album and the fact that it's starting to set in just how long these guys have been together ending on a acapella track like that is a cool idea. like one of those in the end we've all still got each other sorta vibes. "All the Clubs are Broken" is the one that really doesn't fit, I actually dig it a lot but it doesn't belong here