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The Animal Collective - Do they have it in them?

23:22 / 01.12.08

Does this sound reasonable? I pretty much can't bear anything I've heard by new bands this century, apart from the Libertines. But that was more to do with irony than anything else.

I'd like to explain to The Arcade Fire, as their sleazy accountant, who was sunning himself in a fleshpot somwhere warm, that they'd run out of money because I had stolen the lot, and was spending it all on bad, bad things, and see how passionate they felt in their performances afterwards. I'm guessing the wheels would fall off that operation, quite quickly. No more being well-heeled rock stars, and affectedly swapping three shirts between them. By the time I was finished, it would be, bitterly, for real.

Enough about them though. And TV on The Radio, Franz Ferdinand, Fleet Foxes, etc ... there's a list as long as my arm, actually.

But could the Animal Collective's new album be the genuinely exciting, forward-looking piece of work that it's being flagged up as, in the mags for old people? Or is it going to be kind of toytown, sub-Beatles junk that has made the Flaming Lips rich enough to make the film they're currently, uselessly, hawking about the place?

Honestly, I want to believe. But what does anyone else think?

12:45 / 02.12.08

Music mags tend to hype and rave because they don't wanna miss the next Nirvana.
They also destroy carreers by doing so: look at The Strokes, the aforementioned Libertines...
Initial listen on youtube (song: Fireworks) I like them. They sound a bit like Modest Mouse crossed with The Beta Band. I'm listening to Peacebone right now.
Good? Yes. Very, even.
Saviours of music? Hardly... Helluv a lot to put on a bands shoulders, don't you think?
BTW: You're off base with Arcade Fire.
Another aside: Have you ever checked out Broken Social Scene?

09:46 / 03.12.08

Gah.

I have very little, bordering on absolutely no, interest in a band that'd call itself 'Modest Mouse'.

Honestly, what's the point?

Steve Sutherland, who is in many ways a reprehensible human being, (certainly, he used to edit the NME) once said, about a group caled 'Various Vegetables' that if you call yourselves something like that, you won't end up doing coke with a supermodel. That's not exactly what he said, it was darker, but the point is that hopefully, the Animal Collective have broken free from that awful, crippling sense of whimsy. That they'll be like ... otters, I suppose, in the wild, and not the ones in the zoo.

11:30 / 03.12.08

Well, you must admit: both cocaine and supermodels are a bit overrated. Granted, I've snorted neither, but pretty much every person I've ever encountered who was coked up was a complete and utter asshole, and supermodels, well; Naomi Campbell.

Modest Mouse, however, have hired ex-Smith's guitarist Johnny Marr, and you know that that will get them smoking weed with goth chicks. Similar to your Mr. Sutherland's Ideal, but in my opinion, superior.

All that aside, the Animal Collective are good. Their precussions are nice and raw. Style wise, they seem to have the "I-Don't-Give-A-Shit" vibe of Godspeed You Black Emperor. As pretentious as the Arcade Fire or a French film student, but that's meant more as a compliment than an insult. They make interesting low budget videos and sometimes harmonize like Sigur Ros.

What's your take Granny?

14:26 / 03.12.08

Well, FT, I'm not sure what to make of them.

On the one hand, they seem to be unashamedly in favour sacred mushrooms in the desert, ecstatic trance, etc (it has to beat beer and crack on Camden High Street ... in fact, I can categorically say that it does) but on the other, I don't like the Beach Boys.

The side of psychedlia that wouldn't mind heading back to the nursery isn't something I've ever really got into. It's just a matter of taste, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with 'Pet Sounds' or 'The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn' (I own a copy of the latter, and I never want to hear the former again) but I wonder if the AC, at least before the new album, which I've not heard, mightn't have been a bit guilty of that.

I'm confused about the AC, basically. I dare say I will shell out a tenner for the thing, but it's so dispiriting to have to put the new stuff from the latest sensations in the bin a day or two later.

14:31 / 03.12.08

(On that note, anyone who's thinking of buying the MGMT album this Christmas really shouldn't - there's the one, great song, and then you feel sad and lonely, and then you just want to murder the wife and kids).

07:03 / 21.12.08

Panda Bear already made a classic last year that is better than anything Animal Collective is capable of. Person Pitch is a treasure and will likely go down for me as the best of the decade.

Start abandoning lyrics. Emphasize phat beats and noise textures instead. This is the only way. Rock and roll is dead dead dead.

Here are a few new bands that I am genuinrely glad have produced recent music: Flying Lotus, The Tough Alliance, Jens Lekman, Deerhunter, Diplo. Check it out!

10:04 / 21.12.08

The only stuff by Animal Collective that i've ever really loved is the first few songs on Feels, specifically "Did you see the words" and "Grass". Both build on the psychedelic folky collective thing that they seemed to be about at the time. I have no idea what is being sung on Grass, but the flip between twee beach boy folky tune and manic screaming and cymbol crashes always sends tingles down my spine and really worth a listen.

I had really high expectations for Strawberry Jam- but despite all the great reviews it left me cold- too electric/ modern- i wanted more stuff like those opening tracks on Feels . I tried with the Panda Bear album but it didn't do anything for me at all- as i remember it felt very repetitive- maybe its worth another visit- i remember having lots of friends raving about it.

13:48 / 21.12.08

This is the worry. Will the new AC album be the same sort of terrific careeer reinvention that 'Deserter's Songs' was?

Or will it be so depressing that I have to get back into the game, again?

15:53 / 21.12.08

I'd be interested in listening to 'Check it out!'

What are they like? I'm guessing a softcore, Playboy mansion version of the Human League, but hopefully a bit better than that. I never liked that guy very much

You know the one I mean.

The lardy guy

21:22 / 21.12.08

Check it out! is actually a spoken-word motivational duo of two brothers. One acts as the naysayer and the other as the encourager. Sounds like crap as a description, but in the moment it's pretty enjoyable.

10:38 / 11.01.09

The Strokes? The Libertines?
Manufactured corporation robot rock. Won't have anything to do it. Ugh! Yuck! Gross!

Animal Collective make real music, smart music, moving music, good music, new music, original music. I don't want to say groundbreaking. They're not avant-garde or anything. But they're one of those rare bands that manages to use avant-garde ideas to make astonishingly good pop music. Not to add to the hype machine, but along with Dirty Projectors, with whom they share the number one spot, I happen to think they're one of the most important bands making pop music today.

Not a single one of the descriptions or comparisons in this thread have come even REMOTELY close to hitting the mark.

Just listen to the damn thing yourself. It's real fucking good.

10:41 / 11.01.09

Oh and copey - if you thought SJ was too electronic, you might not dig this one. It goes even further in that direction. I think it succeeds incredibly well, better than the last one. But different strokes, perhaps.