Ah, Feels. Feels. Animal Collective’s Feels. I do have to listen to the album in full again one of these days. Back in 2014, I downloaded it more or less to round out the four albums marking the group’s “classic period” having already added Merriweather Post Pavilion, Strawberry Jam and Sung Tongs to the iTunes library. I think, in that order too. Might have even downloaded Centipede Hz before I got to Feels. Though when I did, ‘Did You See the Words’ jumped out immediately. Probably helped it was the album’s first song, but you know what I mean. ‘Grass’ took a little while longer to settle in. Once it did, it became a playlist mainstay. ‘Banshee Beat’ and ‘The Purple Bottle’ are meant to be two of AnCo’s most beloved songs, but in 2014, they just sounded all right to me. And after those ‘Turn into Something’ seemed like the other really obvious highlight. Which is why I say I need to listen through the entire LP again. It’d be a wonder to see what 12 years difference would do. And with the somewhat recent 20th anniversary reissue, I can get some more Feels-era tuneage.

‘Turn into Something’ closes Feels out, bringing everything back home after the lullaby-like ‘Loch Raven’. Looking at Spotify, it’s the second-least played track on the album, which surprises me at least because it’s such a euphoric resolution to everything that’s come before. The intro guitar, which also continues almost throughout, bouncing one from note to the other alongside those thundering tom-toms and snare hits… Those were enough to hook me in. Those were enough, because just listening to the song and not looking at the lyrics won’t clue me in to what Avey Tare’s was singing in any shape or form. Except for the “Oh, that’s the goodness” choruses and the refrains in which the title is sung, it’s very hard to make the words out. I have always appreciated the delivery and the clear energy he puts behind it. But reading the lyrics for this post’s sake, Tare describes his surroundings with a childlike wonder, experiencing a new scene in each verse. There’s an exploration of dealing with fleeting happiness or “goodness” as Tare puts it and a message to be something more, that you have the potential to change. At least, this is how I’ve come to see it. And it’s nice, a real optimistic point to end the album on.

And after Tare sings ‘You should turn into something’ for the last time, the song in turn changes into a completely different mood, becoming a droning, ambient piece with Tare-Panda Bear vocalizations over the top for two-and-a-half-minutes. Really something to space out to. I don’t know if Animal Collective are the type of people to lay out what’s to come next in terms of their music in the last songs of their albums. I’ve read around in places that some artists like to do that. But hearing ‘Turn into Something’ the first time, I did think I could hear bits of Strawberry Jam in there, particularly in those parts in the break between the first chorus and second verse where it sounds like you’re being dunked and pulled out of a vortex. The closing, mind-altering soundscape the tune closes with too, it’s like a precursor to the end of ‘Chores’ or the drones in ‘For Reverend Green’. It’s maybe all a big coincidence, though. It must have been nice being a fan of Animal Collective in 2005. Hearing all four bandmembers were back together again after Sung Tongs, and then they give you a song like this in return? Reckon it couldn’t have been better.