Tag Archives: animal collective

#1430: Animal Collective – Turn into Something

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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.

#1388: Animal Collective – Today’s Supernatural

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At the time of writing this, my old laptop on which I listened to Animal Collective’s Centipede Hz for the first time is on the fritz. Looks like a black-screen-of death situation going on, it might be game over. I’d like to be accurate with these things and give the exact date I saved all the files to it. I’ve done that before. But for now, I’ll have to go by memory. What I’m pretty sure of is that the listening-through would have happened in 2014, during a time when I was really getting into Animal Collective, and I was either in my room at university or at home during the summer. Not my favourite album by the group, I will say. I do appreciate it for being the 180-move in production and sound from Merriweather Post Pavilion and maybe alienating bandwagoners who started following AnCo ’cause of that album just to be cool. But I only really like four songs on it. Three of those four are at the beginning of the album. It starts strongly. ‘Today’s Supernatural’ is the second song on Centipede… and was the first single from it too, getting a music video to boot.

I sort of remember seeing the title and thinking, “Today’s supernatural… what?” My feeling was it was probably an incomplete thought, some kind of wordplay that wasn’t unusual when it came to Animal Collective song titles. No, it very much means ‘Today Is Supernatural’, and it was a nice surprise to find out when the song name’s sort of stated eventually. Just something I thought was worth sharing. When it comes to the song’s content, I’ve always been impressed with how it sounds like it’s taking place on some warped, demented ride at a carnival. I think it’s the arpeggiated organ throughout that adds to the feeling. Another thing that attracted me to the song was how the rhythm was constantly shifting. It begins as a fast waltz, before abruptly moving into a stomping, syncopated rhythm in 4/4 before going back again. Always switching between the waltzing and the stomping, it is. But what got me the most was Avey Tare’s vocal performance. They were somewhat restrained on Merriweather…, but definitely had their excitable moments. None of them though compare in the wild “Come on and le-le-le-le-le-le-le-le-le-let go”s that begin each verse here or the scream he produces as the instrumentation and soundscape fall into each other at the song’s finish. Those are some vocal tics that’ll get you shakin’.

Even now, I’m not sure I have the song’s meaning all figured out. I did think it was about embracing the world outside and undergoing new experiences, without really digging deep. But actually looking at the lyrics and reading them, ‘Today’s Supernatural’ appears to be about a love interest who Tare, or the narrator, feels they’re not good enough for. At least that’s what I’m seeing. Taking out the ‘bionic hee haw’ / ‘erratic see saw’ phrases, ’cause they could literally mean anything, the song’s narrator expresses an admiration for this subject of interest and proceeds to say all the things they wish they could say to this person. Everything however is summed up in the final lines, “I made a shadow with my hand and made it like your heart / But they will never be the same”. Whatever hopes of a relationship the narrator is thinking could happen, it’s all wishful thinking. Maybe that’s why the song ends with that abrupt descent into madness the way it does, they just can’t handle this admission. It’s a tale as old as time. An obvious highlight on this album, got a lot of love for it.

#1337: Animal Collective – Taste

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“Am I really all the things that are outside of me?” is the first and last line of the song ‘Taste’ by Animal Collective. From my recollection, it was the only thing about the track I could remember after listening to Merriweather Post Pavilion for the first time in 2012 and being bewildered by the whole experience. I’ve written before about how I really had no context regarding Animal Collective before heading straight into hearing Merriweather…, how their live setup confused me, how it eventually became a favourite of mine etc. etc. It’s a story I won’t have to repeat again because ‘Taste’ marks the last time a song from the album will appear on here. But you get the idea, I once heard an album, didn’t get it, heard it again a couple more times, I began to understand it. And then I went into a whole Animal Collective phase that doesn’t need to be dug into here. What’s more important is the song at hand. So after Panda Bear opens the second half of Merriweather… with something of an ode to masturbation with ‘Guys Eyes’, Avey Tare takes things back to the more existential self-analysing route rather than a sexual one with ‘Taste’ straight after. The former merges into the latter with a sampled wind(?) of some kind before giving way to the looping, hypnotizing rhythm that anchors ‘Taste’ right up till its end.

I look at Genius, and it looks like ‘Taste’ goes way deeper than I thought it ever did. I kind of got the idea that it was about the topic of image. Being concerned by how the way we act, dress, look is perceived by other people. But then there are metaphors involving clothes in the song that adds a whole other level. What I’ve really appreciated about the song, though, is how, essentially from the first chorus onward, Panda Bear joins Tare on the vocals and sings an entirely different melody over the top. Not in a backup, harmonizing kind of way either, they really act as co-lead vocals. But, you know, you’ll see Tare’s lyrics everywhere because he is the “main” singer for this one. It’s just so fascinating how both vocalists diverge with their vocals, which then come together for the repeats of the final line as the song comes to its end. I always get lost in that moreso than the message. Not that that isn’t important. It’s kind of along the lines of, “Image is something we all think about. It’s just nature. But don’t go changing yourself to please other people.” And that’s pretty solid advice.

So, yeah, not the end of Animal Collective on here, but it’s the end for Merriweather Post Pavilion. It had its time. On some days, it’s my favourite by the group, but the majority of the time that title goes to Strawberry Jam. That is some good listening right there. Only four songs from MPP I managed to write about on here, and had the axes aligned and I’d gotten my act together, at least a couple posts for ‘Also Frightened’ and ‘Brother Sport’ would be found on this place too. Just use your imagination as to how those ones would go. I’m looking at this post for ‘Taste’ now and I’m thinking maybe I could have written a little more about it. I do think it’s a great song, but it came along as more a part of the package that MPP is rather than one I had a grand experience with that I needed to share, which you might in some other posts around the place. But I do appreciate it a lot, and really the song should do all the talking rather than these paragraphs underneath. When the group started playing ‘Taste’ live in 2007, it originally sounded very different. And you’ll find some people saying they prefer this earlier version. I’ll leave it to you.

#1310: Animal Collective – Summertime Clothes

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When I first heard Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavilion in 2012/13, I really didn’t know what to make of it. It was an album unlike any other I’d heard before. At that time, I was firmly into standard band outfit, guitar, drums, bass guitar, rock music. There was none of that on the LP. And then I’d see MPP-era live performances on YouTube where members Avey Tare, Panda Bear and Geologist were onstage with these massive desks covered in wires and pads and other electronics. To the people who knew the band, it probably wasn’t so unusual. But from having no idea who the band was to then listening to the LP as a gateway, there was something overwhelming about it all. But I gave it another try when I was in my first year of uni, and I got my head around it then and there. It’s considered basic to say the album’s your favourite by the group. Personally, mine is Strawberry Jam. But MPP is a damn good album. Sounds like it was made in some outer Avatar-type universe rather than a studio somewhere in Mississippi.

‘Summertime Clothes’ is the fourth song on there, a very obvious single choice even if ‘My Girls’ was chosen to be the first one released from the album. In 12/8, or 4/4 time with a swing feel, the track has an infectious bounce reinforced by the kick drum and pulsing bass synthesizer. Avey Tare sings it, detailing a scene where the narrator’s twisting and turning in their bed at night, unable to sleep because it’s too darn hot in the room. They’ve gotta get out of the place. And so the narrators calls up a friend or partner, I guess you can assume the latter. Luckily, they pick up the phone and they agree to go walk around in the cool of the outside, grab a bite to eat and indulge in other activities you’d do when going out. Basically the track conveys a huge sense of happiness and comfort of being in the company of someone whose presence is very much appreciated. And, you know, that’s pretty wholesome stuff. A very simple topic to write about, but the production and delivery makes it sound a lot more glorious than it should.

Merriweather… marked a moment where vocal duties between Avey Tare and Panda Bear were somewhat equally split between the two. While predecessor Strawberry Jam was a mostly Tare-led record with Panda Bear contributing two songs and providing backing vocals here and there, MPP provided a larger Panda Bear presence throughout, with an abundance of harmonies and countermelodies to boot. And there are those aplenty just in this song alone. Yeah, Avey Tare starts the song off by himself, with a subtle warbly effect going on with his vocal, but then Panda Bear comes in on a harmony here and there, before the chorus kicks in and the two of them sing together. Always nice when the two sing in unison. During the rushing “When the sun goes down, we’ll go out again” bridge, there are some “Oh-oh” backing vocals by Panda that are buried in the mix and pan all over the place. I thought that was a cool little feature. And I also like the lone ‘paarp’ that occurs after Avey Tare sings “Don’t cool off”. It doesn’t need to be there, but it’s also a nice extra touch. There’s small odd moments like that sprinkled throughout the album that my odd self appreciates thoroughly. But this is a good song. Definitely worth 4-and-a-half minutes of your time.

#1142: Animal Collective – Rosie Oh

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The first few times I’d be playing through Animal Collective’s Centipede Hz when I was getting into the group all those years ago, I’ve gotta say its third song ‘Rosie Oh’ passed me by without much of a second thought on my part. It gets a bit of a raw deal with is position in the tracklisting. The album’s hyped up with its charging first track, which in turn is followed by the unpredictably hyper second (also the first single). You wonder how this hectic momentum built by these two numbers will be carried on. Then ‘Rosie Oh’ comes into the frame, and it sounds like a stroll in the park compared to them – albeit containing the same loaded production choices that have been established in the opening tracks. But somewhere along the way, I came to appreciate it a lot more. And now I can write three paragraphs about it with that appreciation.

After playing a huge part in the direction of the sample-heavy, neo-psychedelia of Merriweather Post Pavilion, Animal Collective’s Noah Lennox aka Panda Bear took more of a backseat for Centipede. Quite literally too, as he resumed drumming duties as the four members decided to make their music as more of a typical rock band unit again. Lennox provides two tracks on the album that he takes the lead vocal. One of them I’ve discussed already. ‘Rosie Oh’ isn’t quite as large and swooping as ‘New Town Burnout’, but it certainly surprises you in terms of its structure. There’s a bridge, which you’d think would return back to the melody of the beginning verses, but it goes into another section that in turn goes into a somewhat sudden and unexpected ending after a simmering instrumental break.

The track seems to be an account of someone who has no place to go after being forced out of wherever they once used to live, carrying nothing but a backpack on their person. They’re offered a ride by a stranger and a place to stay by another, but the narrator refuses these and opts to go on their merry way. Maybe the ‘stroll in the park’ feeling of the music is something that’s very much intentional. It’s literally what’s described in the words. Still, being on their own raises the question of whether their lone experiences are essentially worth it without at least having someone their to accompany them. Someone who can be invested in their feelings and bring some relief when things get too heavy. The narrator has an existential crisis at the song’s end: Did they forge this path in life, or did they just let it happen to them? It’s left unresolved, and the album continues onto the next track. But ‘Rosie…’ is definitely an interesting one. More interesting than I think people give it credit. Thumbs up from me.