| |
|
Animal Collective are group I tend to find fascinating and frustrating in equal measure...
They're one of very few currently popular indie-ish type bands who are doing stuff that's consistently strange and challenging and who refuse to limit themselves to one generic/aesthetic area of operations... which is good.
It doesn't always work out though; a certain % of their output is absolutely astonishing after a bit of concentrated listening, but the rest is just teeth-grindingly infuriating. They're clearly extremely talented guys with a ton of great ideas and a unique vision, but all that bloody high-pitched warbling and "wheeee! let's pretend to be little children and run around in circles!" crap can be pretty hard to take.
So from the material I'm familiar with, I'd say that "Spirit They've Gone, Spirit They've Vanished" from way back is an absolute masterpiece, maybe one of the most affecting and original records of the past decade and still their best album.
"Danse Manatee" on the other hand is a borderline unlistenable bunch of fingernails-down-the-blackboard techni-colour vomit age whatever that communicates absolutely nothing.
"Sung Tongs" unfortunately justifies the 'freak-folk' accusation by mostly sounding like Tyrannosaurus Rex on even worse drugs... which is a bad thing, in case you were wondering.
"Feels" though is fucking great; it reigns in their more irritating tendencies, and is a really cohesive effort, returning to the balance between emotionally-driven song-writing and freaked out exploratory sound that makes "Spirit They've Gone.." such a keeper. Haunted Fun In Love Summer Wonder - yeah.
Maybe appreciation of this band is simply a matter of patience and waiting for the right headspace to develop.
Case in point, I've grown extremely fond of Panda Bear's "Young Prayer", which initially sounded utterly baffling, like some guy randomly howling like a polecat whilst constantly retuning a cheap guitar, but reveals itself after a few listens to be a really beautiful and powerful evocation of nameless, wordless emotional awe and an extremely rewarding listen. |
|
|
