Animal Collective - Feels

fuck, this album's been sat in my "to listen to at some point possibly" pile for over a month, but that makes me want to stick it on RIGHT NOW!

Amazing album, by the way.

i wasn't trying to pigeonhole them, im just saying their acoustic guitars have always sounded fantastic. Campfire Songs is still my favorite AC album and a big part of the reason why i loved Sung Tongs so much is that the crisp acoustic guitars made the album feel so autumnal.

First track is absolutely gorgeous.

Also, where is Sleeper Factory?

I never liked their early stuff before Sung Tongs, and I didn't think they could top that one. But goddamn, this is a remarkable record. Really blowing me out of the water at the moment.

amen, i can't see anyone topping this this year, AC = Beach Boys of 2005 but BETTER

And then I like it quite a bit.

Oh, and unlike other AC stuff, I want to see the lyrics to this BAD. Genius.

here is a mess of an attempt at did you see the words (it's pretty decipherable right up until the line about eldery couples):

DID YOU SEE THE WORDS
have you see the words cut? open
your poor intestine can’t deny
incu-periods? drip from your mailbox
and blood flies? dip and dive
reach down in-siiii-ide
there’s something living in these lies

and when your newest kisser is peakin
you dress yourself up to not
get tangled up in arms and legs it’s hard to bend?
someone grabs a hold til you go oh-ohhh-oh
there’s something starting don’t know why?

in a house so cozy words are spoken
not to take our shoes off and unwind
and there’s minuets off in the background
drowning out ?????????? I’ll test the kiss goodni-iiiiii-ight
don’t keep my loving on my mind

cause it’s messy yes this mess is mine
my mind is messy yours is maybe not?

look at her similar ?????
look at her similar ?????

do the elderly couples still kiss and hug and
gradually ????????????????????????/
??????????????????????????????????
(holy shit i have no idea)

did you see the words you wrote
give me? everything?
and babies and? the hospital?
????????????????????????
kiss the few? ????? his shoes are haunted
show is ????

I listened to "The Purple Bottle" yesterday for the first time in a long time and I couldn't believe that I used to like it so much, it seems so silly and childish now. OTOH, the song is about exactly that -- reminiscing about being silly and childish -- so perhaps I should shut up and learn to love it again ...

must admit i haven't listened to Feels for a long time either and I fear my tolerance for tweeful sentimentality might have dwindled since I was 25. lots of music sounds dated 10 years after the fact I guess.

feels was a dissapointment for me when it came out. i had seen them play these songs a bunch of times and they had this weird, backwoods hillbilly psychedelic sound that didn't translate to the album. turn into something was called country fuck and featured a duck call solo! haven't loved an AC album since sung tongs, but I like seeing them live.

OTM. A lot of anti=Animal Collective sentiment on ILM seemed to revolve around the 'kind' of band they are and what sort of people they allegedly attracted. Very rarely did it feel as though those slagging them off had even bothered to listen to more than 10 seconds of their music.

― 3kDk (dog latin), Monday, August 4, 2014 11:42 AM (46 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I thought the anti sentiment mostly revolved around the vocals? I'm super into AC but it's a difficult complaint to counter.

are the vocals particularly difficult? noah's got an excellent voice. i guess Avey gets a bit shrieky sometimes... never saw it as a problem myself but then i generally like weird-arsed vox

mystifies me that anyone could've heard this heard this after sung tongs and thought "ah, right, they're a proper rock band now." i swear i hear something new every time i listen to Feels and it's been 11 years. SJ is another story. that record has no sonic depth. but just now i put on 'Banshee Beat' and 'Loch Raven' is just ending now, and I'm hearing new Noah vocals I never heard before. half the songs don't even have drums.

Saw them live like four times before this album came out, still find the studio version of "Banshee Beat" disappointing in comparison.

I understand, the same thing happened with me and the Strawberry Jam songs. saw them five months after feels came out, and they mostly played SJ songs - it was incredible, the sour, darker, twisted side of the gauzy, lovey-dovey thing going on in Feels. i discovered the AC when Feels leaked, eleven years ago this month. the live versions from 04/05 are much heavier and noisier. the record is so sedated, i can imagine it was a surprise and a drag.

but i was gonna say - this is my favorite mixing job on an album ever. the go-to example of what mixing is and why it's so important. according to kria brekkan there was lots of hash involved. well, YEP! sounds like it. whatever it takes...

it's weird to think that this came out when "feels" was only a verb and wasn't a plural noun yet

i wonder if they would have called this record "feels" if they knew it would sound like it was named after some cutesy twee reddit bullshit in a couple of years

yeah i think about that every time i hear the phrase now. it hasn't been that long since 'feels' entered the lexicon, maybe 3/4 years? it's a drag

i don't know what's more upsetting... the phrase 'feels' fiasco or the widespread adoption of 'AnCo'

This is the second and last AC album I've put on a year end top 10 list.

They should take a year or two off, listen through and rate the various live recordings, and kick of a "Dick's Picks" sorta bootleg series. I'd be willing to buy one or two.

i wonder if they would have called this record "feels" if they knew it would sound like it was named after some cutesy twee reddit bullshit in a couple of years

the working title of SJ was strawberry awesomesauce

I've never gotten into Feels. I think the sequencing bothers me, it's way too normal with the hits at the start and a more shapeless second half. One of the best things with AnCo is their sense of dynamics, so important when working with loops and drones, but Daffy Duck and Loch Raven is simply too much filler with Turn Into Something way too obvious as an ender. Had the album been better constructed, the same songs but put together differently, it might be one of my favorites. As it is, I much prefer Strawberry Jam, for instance.

Just listened to this at work for the first time in maybe 10 years. Don't like it. I think if I liked indie rock in the slightest, it would make more sense, but it just isn't very interesting, and when Avey Tare sings (ie most of the record), I actively dislike. Record could work as decent ambient music if there were no vocals at all, or only the backing vocals, as the instrumental tracks and general vibe can be pretty. Otherwise, cannot participate.

listening to Strawberry Jam now as part of same exercise, and to give you an idea of AC that I would listen to, it would be closer to something like "#1"

incidentally the 'feels' name was (maybe, kind of?) a plural noun, borrowing from brian wilson:

I go to the piano and play “feels.” “Feels” are specific rhythm patterns, fragments of ideas. Once they’re out of my head and into the open air, I can see them and touch them firmly. Then the song starts to blossom and become a real thing.

Nice find! Good shot thats the genesis of the name given Panda Bear's affinity for B Dubs

Im daft but is this album the genesis of 'feels' as a noun?

99% certain it's not. People who say stuff like "all the feels" don't strike me as pre-merriweather anco fans

still never heard a song that sounds anything like 'daffy duck'

Vastly prefer my memory of hearing these songs live to the actual album. The studio version of “Banshee Beat” is especially subdued compared to the live version.

Saw them live like four times before this album came out, still find the studio version of "Banshee Beat" disappointing in comparison.

― spastic heritage, Thursday, August 18, 2016 8:53 PM (one year ago)

that has happened to me... so many times

Yeah, I should’ve scrolled up a tad. 🤷‍♂️

no i like it. it's humbled me many times before

re: banshee beat live vs. studio, listening to 11/11/04 toronto tonite & imagining banshee beat recorded like this... it'd sound like arcade fire