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Animal Collective's upcoming studio album

Started by Tikwid, September 02, 2021, 11:39:35 PM

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Tikwid

The AC have been working on new music since way back in early 2018, when they premiered an album's worth of new material at a one-off event at the Music Box Village in New Orleans, and another album's worth cropped up on their short late 2019 tour. Since then the band have released an EP of curated pandemic jams and a film soundtrack, but there's been a few hints that the recording of the new album (of course delayed due to COVID) is finally finished. And if the work-in-progress songs from those live shows are anything to go by - jazzy with lots of vibraphones and keyboards, Panda back on drums, lyrics that seem to be definitively letting go of the old era's prolonged youthfulness and embracing maturity - this could be something quite special.

  • Cherokee - quirky pop piece with weird chords and a lovely bridge, I think it'll be the lead single
  • Prester John - only two chords but somehow manages to embody a proggy ethos, medieval theme and all
  • Passerby - moody ballad with a phenomenal outro, "wouldn't miss a moment's bliss"
  • Defeat - massive 20-minute multi-part suite about coming of age, could very well be the band's masterpiece (slightly shorter version also performed at the Music Box Village shows)
So, anyone else boarding the hype train? I'm not the kind of person who thinks the AC entered some kind of period of decline after MPP, and much of their 2010s work has been just as strong as their 2000s Brooklyn heyday - in fact it's funny to think that this will be their first full-length studio album since 2016, and first since 2012 to feature Deakin, since with how many EPs and solo projects they've released it doesn't quite feel that way. I mention that only because I'm not thinking of the new songs as any kind of "bounce back" or "return to form" from some presumed low period of Centipede Hz or Painting With (both of which I loved), but rather as extremely strong new material in an already strong recent discography. My only hope is that the autotune from the 2019 live performances gets toned down a bit, but otherwise I think this is gonna be a career highlight, even if it doesn't feature Defeat in its eventual track listing. Although maybe it'll take the spotlight in its own companion EP, who knows...

Famous Mortimer

I popped on "Sung Tongs" the other day and it sounded so fucking good that I realised I should have been more of a fan down the years. So yes, nice to have Panda Bear back and I'm looking forward to this.

sevendaughters

I thought Painting With was one of the worst albums I've ever heard in my entire life, one which sent me into a really negative spiral about everything they'd done, including the stuff I thought that I liked (immediately volte-faced on Here Comes The Indian, can't explain it, but never has an album gone from 'like' to 'dislike' in one unrelated step before) so much so that I was pretty much left with Feels and the People EP. Made me completely write them off as some Steiner school bullshit. Probably a completely harsh take, and maybe I should go for a walk and listen to Person Pitch and regain my axis before listening to anything new.

chutnut

I'm another one who hated painting with (and centipede hz - honestly there were some parts of that album that made me want to punch avey tare), but I did like tangerine reef quite a lot.
Having a quick listen to those videos some of it reminds me of spirit they've gone which is nice, but I agree I hope they get rid of the autotune.
On a side note I saw them live around 2003/2004 supporting múm, not knowing who they were at the time and it was mind blowing (and had a similarly mind blowing experience listening to spirit they've gone for the first time a few weeks later), but every youtube video I've watched of them playing live since has been pretty awful tbh. It seems like sometimes they just can't sing at all, especially panda bear.

The Mollusk

The vast majority of the time when I listen to Animal Collective or related projects I can sort of see why they're revered as this transcendent mind blowing entity of the indie scene but personally I just cannot gel with it at all and it annoys me that I've not "broken through" with their stuff after so many years of vaguely having a bash at it.

They have their moments though and Person Pitch is absolutely fucking incredible. I'd not heard it in ages but I stuck it on recently and it sounded better than ever before. I was fluctuating vibes between lying on my kitchen floor with my eyes wide open feeling it swim all around me and then flailing with mad abandon up and down the hallway like I was a fuckin extra in the parade scenes in The Wicker Man.

I'm one of those dickheads who thinks the best AC album is Strawberry Jam and typing this post has made me stick For Reverend Green on really loud so I guess that's something.

That's my opinions on the band Animal Collective.

non capisco

Quote from: The Mollusk on September 04, 2021, 03:58:37 PM
I'm one of those dickheads who thinks the best AC album is Strawberry Jam and typing this post has made me stick For Reverend Green on really loud so I guess that's something.

I'm one of those even more basic dickheads who thinks their best album is Merriweather Post Pavilion.


Goldentony

Strawberry Jam is my favourite too I reckon, saw them at the time of that though with huge rows of rainbow strobes in a completely dark room doing most of it live and it was GREAT so im biased by that mildly

imitationleather

Boston Crab will be along shortly to paddle the lot of you.

chveik

he hasn't posted in a while but it's indeed the perfect way to get him back

Goldentony

sorry my favourite is actually Animal Crack Box

non capisco

Quote from: imitationleather on September 04, 2021, 11:12:34 PM
Boston Crab will be along shortly to paddle the lot of you.

Each time I've seen Animal Collective live they were shite, they didn't play anything I knew and it was well boring, come at me Bosto if you dare.

(I will concede that Cherokee tune in the OP's link is pretty mint, though.)

chveik

favourite band of the nonce community says yougov

Johnboy

I remember not being drawn in by them when they were acclaimed

What 3 songs should I listen to by them, do you reckon

sutin

I enjoy some of their records but 2 times out of the 3 times I saw them live they were absolutely bloody awful. I mean completely appalling. First time they were in a bad mood because someone smashed their tour bus window and the second time they played what felt like one really long boring song.

Key

Quote from: Johnboy on September 05, 2021, 12:12:01 AM
I remember not being drawn in by them when they were acclaimed

What 3 songs should I listen to by them, do you reckon

The Softest Voice
Banshee Beat
Daily Routine


I saw them live around Centipede and while they werent mindblowing they put on a solid enough show.

popcorn

I've never been able to like or understand these guys and my perception was always that they made strange cartoonish boingy-bouncey-boingy joke music like some sort of Chris Morris nonsense song. I also find it difficult to accept that one of them is called Panda Bear. However I am wondering if I should give them another look.

Quote from: chutnut on September 04, 2021, 02:23:17 PM
On a side note I saw them live around 2003/2004 supporting múm, not knowing who they were at the time and it was mind blowing

Me too, in Brighton. I didn't even know that was Animal Collective until a friend told me a few years ago. I do remember finding them impenetrably strange though.

popcorn

Quote from: Tikwid on September 02, 2021, 11:39:35 PM

  • Cherokee - quirky pop piece with weird chords and a lovely bridge, I think it'll be the lead single

enjoyed this.

Tikwid

Over the last few days the band have been putting out teaser pictures of the back cover of the new album, which we now know is called Time Skiffs - no official release announcement from Domino yet (although it's probably imminent) but with all the pieces of the back cover put together we've now got a confirmed tracklist:



(word is that Prester John will be the lead single, and the other songs performed on the 2019 and 2021 mini tours - probably including Defeat, Magicians from Baltimore, Stride Right, Soul Capturer, and Genie's Open/Sea of Light - should be appearing on a follow-up album, to be recorded as soon as possible)

Tikwid

Confirmed for a Feb 4th release date! Front cover:

Prester John music video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5iJ9wt4paY

The Mollusk

Maybe I'm just tired but I think that Prester John song/video is kinda boring. I'm confused about the comments section gushing over it, especially people saying it's the best thing they've done since "Feels", an album bristling with weird organic energy, whereas this was a very plodding and repetitious song with a bit of plinky plonky synth noodling chucked in?

Also as an aside, Lennox looks bored as fuck and like he could not be arsed to be in that video.

sevendaughters

yeah I thought they might work up a nice Clinic dissassociative medievalism thing there but it ended up being a slightly ploddy Grizzly Bear number.

Chedney Honks

Sounds like the Dead, really like the spacious production and the harmonies, enjoying the Deakin influence. Looking forward to an album with that vibe, it's like if they'd gone more psych rock after Feels instead of doing SJ.

Also really enjoyed Panda Bear recent set in Madrid, sounds like he's in a rich vein.

I'm surprised Defeat isn't on this given it's their best song in nearly fifteen years but I'll look forward to the follow up.

I don't bother discussing music on here which is why I've skipped this thread but thanks for your updates, Tikwid.

Chedney Honks

Just reading back through this thread laughing.

Tikwid

Quote from: Chedney Honks on October 20, 2021, 05:00:04 PM
Sounds like the Dead, really like the spacious production and the harmonies, enjoying the Deakin influence. Looking forward to an album with that vibe, it's like if they'd gone more psych rock after Feels instead of doing SJ.

Also really enjoyed Panda Bear recent set in Madrid, sounds like he's in a rich vein.

I'm surprised Defeat isn't on this given it's their best song in nearly fifteen years but I'll look forward to the follow up.

I don't bother discussing music on here which is why I've skipped this thread but thanks for your updates, Tikwid.
Glad to be of service! The AC are probably my favourite band and it's been really rewarding following the progress of this era, ever since it began way back in 2018 with the Music Box Village shows. (I think the band want to have Defeat and other long ones from this era on the imminent followup album so they can record it in person, which makes sense for their biggest epic since Alvin Row - although I'm sure in the future fans will make their own playlists combining the two albums)
Quote from: sevendaughters on October 20, 2021, 04:30:43 PM
yeah I thought they might work up a nice Clinic dissassociative medievalism thing there but it ended up being a slightly ploddy Grizzly Bear number.
The medieval aspect definitely looks like it's going to be one of the thematic undercurrents of this era, along with NOLA swamp jazz and Dead-esque jamming: Prester John has the chant-type vocals plus the title reference to the mythic king, and the theme comes off in song names like Kings, Dragon Slayer, Genie's Open, Magicians from Baltimore etc.. And I get what you mean about the ploddiness (although I'd describe it more as measured or stately - not unlike like The Carpet Crawlers by Genesis) but going by the live bootlegs it'll probably make more sense in the album's context, balanced out by both faster and slower songs

The Mollusk


Chedney Honks

Thanks, I appreciate it. The basic reason is I mostly just prefer to listen these days.

sutin

Quote from: non capisco on September 04, 2021, 11:37:48 PM
Each time I've seen Animal Collective live they were shite, they didn't play anything I knew and it was well boring, come at me Bosto if you dare.

Yeah, I saw them three times and the first two times they were absolute dogshit. Their 2009 Belfast gig was so boring that my mate was holding himself up on a wall and a bouncer was ready to kick him out because he thought he was too drunk to stand up. When he said that he was just really bored the bouncer laughed in an understanding way and left him alone.

amateur

Quote from: Johnboy on September 05, 2021, 12:12:01 AM
I remember not being drawn in by them when they were acclaimed

What 3 songs should I listen to by them, do you reckon

Floridada
Summertime Clothes
My Girls

AKA the best ones.

peanutbutter

Not too pushed about the new song, it's alright; def get the impression there's a lot of people who have hit a point of totally ignoring Animal Collective that they're just ready to embrace them again and it'll result in this album getting a fair bit more attention than the last few.

With most bands at this point they'd be doing a tour heavily based around Strawberry Jam/MPP and making an absolute killing, that'd be a kinda grim thing for them to do so good they're not.