Animal Collective - Feels

i remember early in high school someone told me about this album and i would look at it in the itunes store and play samples from each of the tracks (didn't have enough $ to buy it). the sample of "Grass" was so appealing to me but I was confused by the screaming. anyway, the album seemed like a window into a whole world of cool music i didn't understand but wanted to be acquainted with.

i was 12, in the thick of becoming really, really obsessed with music. i remember lots of people on other boards talking about it, and I got the leak on OiNK (RIP). i must've already heard grass and liked it. i dont remember listening to the first three songs for the first time, but the moment The Purple Bottle started is etched in my mind. that hannah barberra technicolor sound of the galloping drums, a stunning visual - the heartbeat, the big big beat. still one of my favorite love songs ever. "crush high"

i told someone that the purple bottle was my favorite anco song once and he sneered and said that was their "poppiest" song.

all the jam band fans they gained around the turn of the decade are so annoying - especially, and I'm not speaking about you, the use of the acronym "AnCo," which was created by Carles/Hipster Runoff as a joke. But it took off even though it's another dumb acronym in the baby voice style of HR - i.e. vampy weeks. but ppl use AnCo sincerely. what also bugs me is that they already had an acronym - the AC! - which is way cooler anyway. end rant

u guys r young. back in my day collected animals were all fields. but i was young then too and being an animal collective fan was quite exciting. the speed at which they were moving through so many great ideas. i saw them do feels songs live even before sung tongs came out! that was good.

vampy weeks! how come i didn't know about that, that is awesome.

i always write anco. and i don't really feel feels. strawberry jam and here comes the indian are my jams.

always heard 'AnCo' used pejoratively by detractors for some reason. They did gain a pretty hideous following and perhaps deserved backlash not long after this album, but up until Strawberry Jam I think they were one of the best and most imaginative bands coming out of the US indie/alt scene.

still are

after merriweather, the frats at my college started playing animal collective sometimes. i remember vaguely thinking this should upset me but then realizing i didn't care at all.

i don't really get why people would blame bands for the fans that happen to be drawn to them. especially a band like this, which pretty clearly always did their own thing and let their music develop organically rather than chase any sort of fanbase.

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.

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