animal collective

This Prester John track is great

I really love a lot of the Centipede tracks - Wide Eyed and Monkey Riches especially - but I've really started to appreciate Rosie Oh sounding like a really fucked up thing from Ween's The Mollusk. like even Ween could never dream of something that mutated

Listened to Centipede HZ again on this threads inspiration. Anco at its most prog but damn can they spin a banging melody. Very tight collection of songs. OTM re: Ween comparison. Applesauce might be their best singalong, so many fun parts to put your voice to.
The album really fits into the PC Music era. Would love to hear a version of the album without any vocals as the instrumentation stands on its own as a highly developed world. Could see this hypothetical version released on warp as a new artist and pull in handsome reviews.

many years on, with some diversions and evidence to the contrary (what the hell is that ending to applesauce?), I am still convinced Avey Tare is a genius of songwriting, one of the best of 2000's. I regret the stigma that attached to AnCo which undervalued how great their songwriting really is (regardless of opinion on style).
Spirit they've gone is the miracle that proves my point. April and the phantom, Penny Dreadfuls and Alvin Row as the beginning of your songwriting output? Get out of here!

Speaking of reevaluations: Down There. Will take it above Person Pitch any day; it deserved an equal amount of praise. Laughing Hieroglyphic best song on depression? Best Anco Melody? Most appropriate production? Best use of accordion in pop? I'm not sure, but it makes you ask.

Okay sorry I know waxing lyrical on AnCo is a nono

agreed that spirit is absolutely remarkable for a debut/songwriting (never heard anything as simultaneously challenging/beautiful/dark/whimsical), but i fail to hear it in any other of their records regardless of the style... maybe 'feels' at a push...

I'd argue Tracks 4-8 on Strawberry Jam reflect Spirits essence pretty well. In particular Cuckoo Cuckoo feels like a shorter, high production value, amalgamation of the three spirit songs I mentioned.
The thing with spirit is that it couldn't be replicated because it was a coming of age album (all arguments to the contrary need to read through the lyrics again.) and the thing with coming of age is you can only do it once. A spirit 2.0 would not have the maturity present in making an album like that at their immature age. I don't have much time for Danse Manatee but I do think it was the right choice in their progression.

AnCo really wear their emotional growth/stages on their sleeves with each album. From the distance there is a clear storyline progressing in their discography. Centipede got hit because it was the first plateau in their emotional progression. relative plateau anyway because I think there were still some newly developed heart on sleeve moments.

Spirit carried on throughout their discography with the childhood motif in their lyrics. Spirit was the concentrate of lost innocence in lyrics which leak onto every album and define AnCo's lyrics.: ahhhh good country, doggy, slippi, banshee beat, #1 and cuckoo cuckoo, brother sport, applesauce, etc.

Spirit has a very unique sound to it, something that I think is only really possible in a debut album - everything is so crisp and paper thin but not in a way I think anyone would want to replicate. Outside of the very low bass everything seems to occupy this high frequency, it's like a chunk of it is missing or something. Avey's voice almost hasn't even dropped yet, he doesn't really sound like that on any other album. I have a live recording where they do "Alvin Row" and it's amazing & clearly they're a way better band...but it's not as ethereal as it is on the album.

fwiw I'm not sure how I rate it as an album. it does a really good job pissing me off right off the bat. its definitely got some magic to it though. personally, I feel their 5 best are Feels, Strawberry, MPP, Centipede, and Painting With. the 5 most recent lol

new album appears to have leaked. RYM people seem to like it. I suppose I'll grab a copy when it's actually out.

My poor ears just can't take the frequencies involved in 'Spirit They've Vanished' so I ran it through an audio cleanup plug-in and plucked out the two main offenders, at least I can listen to it now.

Pretty incredible to take off so hard as a band with spirit as their first album, don't think anyone could expect their MPP success 8 years on from this utterly strange debut. Forgot how abrasive the first track is, not their standout that's for sure. The noise and repetition does allow the title lyric and melody change at the 3:30 minute mark to hit harder than it should.

Written about this before, but I really believe Catcher in the Rye and Spirit They've Gone are two pieces cut from the same cloth.

new album is surprisingly good, a real return to form. plays to all their strengths while still breaking new ground for them & it's also the best they've ever sounded production-wise.

vibes this time are 'the 70s' and 'exotica', it's very lush & loose

that's awesome, I really liked the recent "We Go Back" single. hope the store has it in tomorrow

something was recently pointed out to me that blew my mind; proto-Animal Collective is not The Beach Boys, but rather the track "Schooldays" by Gentle Giant

whos excited for the new album. should I start a thread er nah

I think you should and still not too late

okay fine

lmao the picture they picked for this

Panda Bear shares 17-minute ambient track rejected by Calm app https://t.co/a6MV0trByL pic.twitter.com/oTR9RoTgp8

— THE LINE OF BEST FIT (@bestfitmusic) April 12, 2022

just saw them in Madison last night. it was really good!! incredible set list, lots of stuff from Time Skiffs plus like 3 new songs, one of which was a total showstopper. I didn't realize how much they fuck around with the arrangements live. cool crowd too, reminds me of a Ween crowd but younger. the lady next to me might've been the biggest AnCo fan on the planet.

Nice, I couldn't go and honestly I'm not much of a fan, but it seemed like kind of a crazy opportunity to see them in a relatively small venue, for not very much money. Glad it was a cool show.

listening to the new one. “prester john” knocked me on my ass! “cherokee” sounds very classic anco in my mind, the kind of sound that made me fall for this band when i was a teenager

yeah Time Skiffs is great!

Yikes.

Getting bad out there, friends.

pic.twitter.com/1AZGjgSluo

— Animal Collective (@anmlcollective) May 26, 2022

That's from May, isn't it?

Ah, so it is. Just saw that. It popped up in my feed because the writer Marc Masters retweeted it. The point remains!

There's actually a newer post about a tour cancellation from them, which is why the older post got retweeted most likely.

Hard to imagine how any band is making it on tour right now. Rough times. pic.twitter.com/pHUlBhJUDY

— Marc Masters 🌵 (@Marcissist) October 10, 2022

That’s a real bummer, if AnCo can’t make it I’d imagine the vast majority of the bands I like can’t either

Brutal.

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