CD Review: Animal Collective

Noise rockers continue their dominance of pop music

By Jay Grant

Posted on Dec. 09, 2009, at 11:20 p.m.

As far as experimental music is concerned, this decade was dominated by Animal Collective. Beginning as central duo Panda Bear and Avey Tare, the band released their whacked out debut “Spirit They’re Gone, Spirit They’ve Vanished” at the start of the new millennium. That album was a raucous, abrasive record of electronic blips and heavy distortion, along with wildly yelping vocals.

Animal Collective’s music was only for a small niche of out-there music lovers. Their fondness was often based in at least some level of pretense. Nine years and seven full-length albums later, Animal Collective has started to make music that’s for everybody – euphonic, melodic pop songs now with only an ounce of weird. With 2009 coming to an end, the band has released a five-song EP called “Fall Be Kind” as a kind of summary of the new sound they’ve developed over the last two years and boy, is it good.

The five tracks on “Fall Be Kind” are less linear: surprisingly more cohesive epics comprised of multiple movements. Record opener “Graze” begins with an electronic effect that recalls strings from some fantastical movie dream sequence. From here, the song continues to soar with Avey Tare and Panda Bear trading off singing self-conscious lyrics musing over their recent successes, and Panda Bear asking, “How does a band turn into such a thing?”

The song soon shifts gears completely with frantic flutes emerging like circus music on speed. Over a fuzzy synth slam, Tare’s voice comes back in, singing bouncy lines worthy of any standard song of longing and exemplifying precisely what is so cool about Animal Collective. Where other experimental bands may think experimental content comes with the territory, Animal Collective’s songs are simple and endearing, often about love or just trying to be a happy dude.

Take second track “What Would I Want? Sky.” Avey sings, “Is everything alright? You feeling lonely? You feeling moldy? You’re not the only.” This kind of heart-on-sleeve lyricism is of the sort you would expect from wimps like Death Cab For Cutie, not a preeminent noise band. The bizarre contrast between musical and lyrical content is what makes lines like that above easy to stomach, with everything feeling so light and free-wheeling you don’t even mind when they get a little emotional.

Tracks “Bleed” and “On a Highway” get a little droney, the latter finding Animal Collective bringing in hand-slapped drums and both featuring Brian Wilson-inspired harmonies to keep things from getting too heavy. Closer “I Think I Can” is a percussion-heavy romp that brings the short and sweet record to a sufficient end. The long track carries forward with tribal stomp before Panda Bear’s spiraling “I Think I Can, I Think I Can” into the finish.

It is worth noting the album’s highlight “What Would I Want? Sky” is the first song to acquire a legal sample of a Grateful Dead song, in this case “Unbroken Chain.” By the way, stereogum.com reported that Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh loves Animal Collective’s track. The connection is fitting. In the first half of the seven-minute epic and throughout “Fall Be Kind,” Animal Collective proves themselves to be the jam band of the 21st Century. From their use of repetition, to the multiple shifts over the course of many of their songs, Animal Collective are essentially doing with electronics and an array of instruments what Jerry Garcia and Co. were doing with a more typical rock band format. However, they aren’t just every stoner’s new favorite band – they’re one of the few acts today taking the average catchy pop formula and doing something genuinely new with it.

Grade: A

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 9th, 2009, 11:20 pm. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.