[terrestrialjane]

Everyone over analyzes them, like there could just so many meanings. I know I do, but I'm probably usually wrong, but I like to think I'm right.

And another thing I'm gonna toss in, I don't think AC is you know...too much influenced by drugs. You can't say they really weren't back in the day. Now it seems like they are growin up a bit and just expressing themselves, with or without drugs does not matter. But yeah I used to think a lot of their songs were drug influenced, I highly doubt that now. New and older ones... does that make sense?

[Emerson]

i think it's very naturally and usually a good endeavor to make meaning

adds zest to life

and the AC live meaningful lives and care a lot about their music so naturally the music is gonna be meaningful

i feel like some songs were literally written for me because Avey loves my silly sad ghost vibes

[northernchild]

PumpkinsFlashback wrote:

And another thing I'm gonna toss in, I don't think AC is you know...too much influenced by drugs. You can't say they really weren't back in the day. Now it seems like they are growin up a bit and just expressing themselves, with or without drugs does not matter.

avey's talked about this and said they tried it a couple times but never really made good music or something along those lines. so apparently little of there stuff is influenced by drugs (apparently a lot of the earlier stuff like danse was influenced by touring with black dice)

[coollodges]

They are just people who have done drugs and also happen to make music. That's probably as far as the influence goes.

[IkoOvo]

I like to come up with my own lyrics (what I THINK they say) and sometimes my own meanings. I think the best thing about AC (or music or art in general) is that it means different things to different people. I appreciate AC different than anyone else on here does.

I guess I'm saying I don't think it's really possible to over-analyze lyrics.
Some people like to analyze, others don't.
It's all personal preference.

[IkoOvo]

coollodges wrote:

They are just people who have done drugs and also happen to make music. That's probably as far as the influence goes.

I think this is probably true.
In an interview, Panda said he smoked weed while he was alone working on mixing stuff.

[IkoOvo]

Yeah, that was Tomboy?
I wasn't sure when the interview was from.

[terrestrialjane]

The high times interview? haha XD My man's Pandas a stoner!
http://www.hightimes.com/read/interview ... panda-bear

[IkoOvo]

Haha that's the one!

[cody]

for avey, some songs like april and the phantom and banshee beat are fun to decipher because they seem so personal they're relatable for me in some way. though a lot of his lyrics paint a picture for the song and it's usually just fun to think about what he was imagining when he wrote it. i think winters love and peacebone are good examples of this.

[StrangeClams]

peacebone is probably my second favorite ac song and i still don't know what it means, i think understanding it would decrease its appeal.

[El Camino]

I rarely ever try to decode the meaning behind any of their lyrics, whenever i figure out a possible interpretation for one of their songs it just comes to me after listening to it enough but i never just sit there trying to figure out what their lyrics could mean.

Lyrics are the absolute last thing i look for in a song.

[IkoOvo]

I love how personal lyrics can be.
Everyone can have their own interpretations

El Camino wrote:

I rarely ever try to decode the meaning behind any of their lyrics, whenever i figure out a possible interpretation for one of their songs it just comes to me after listening to it enough but i never just sit there trying to figure out what their lyrics could mean.

I agree with this.

[MFpotus]

i typically don't pay a lot of attention to lyrics. it takes me a little extra effort to appreciate artists like bob dylan or joanna newsom.
but i can still be really affected by the lyrics. occasionally, when i'm listening to ac, i'll notice a line that doesn't make any sense out of context of the rest of the lyrics, but it'll evoke some long lost feeling or memory that's been hidden in my subconscious. something like the swimming pool line in banshee beat. for me, there has always been a lot of nostalgia surrounding the imagery of a swimming pool, and so when avey sings that line in what is a very beautiful and melancholic song, it just brings back a flood of memories and sensations.

[Cussing Bum]

I've been involved in different band forums over the years and all of them analyze lyrics a lot more than this place, which surprised me at first. But it makes sense. There's so much going on with Animal Collective musically that it takes me forever to even learn the lyrics. Personally I love thinking about lyrical meaning but also the way the words sound together.

[DannyBrown]

The lyrics are just so ambiguous sometimes you can't help, but dissect them. It's their job to know what they mean and ours to find out I guess. Or not find out. Or whatever.

[IkoOvo]

The thing I love is that the music/lyrics can mean something entirely different from one person's perspective to another.
The other day my friend told me that he thinks Also Frightened is about raising children and it kind of blew my mind. I'd never thought of it like that before!

[Cussing Bum]

IkoOvo wrote:

The thing I love is that the music/lyrics can mean something entirely different from one person's perspective to another.
The other day my friend told me that he thinks Also Frightened is about raising children and it kind of blew my mind. I'd never thought of it like that before!

That was my first impression of the song. Before I knew anything about the band, I assumed Avey had two kids.

The image that pops into my head when I hear the song is of a father and his two kids in a Hot Springs-style natural jacuzzi/swamp thing.

[El Camino]

I don't think i know any of the lyrics on Here Comes the Indian, except for a few lines here and there.

[archie]

avey said he was saying
awwwwwww come on eddggaarrrrr
which hits me fruackin hard because i've gotten into the habit of calling myself edgar in certain moods

[archie]

and i think panda's saying go again or something i figured it out yesterday but now i forget

[Calvin]

music is meant to provide escape, inspiration, reaction -- whatever -- but it's meant for YOU. however you get meaning, whether it's just light-hearted listening or it's obsessive analysis -- it's ALLLL good.

[RouOfCoorflig]

archie wrote:

avey said he was saying
awwwwwww come on eddggaarrrrr
which hits me fruackin hard because i've gotten into the habit of calling myself edgar in certain moods

Didn't Panda have a phase from HCTI - Sung Tongs where he ate shrooms a lot and called himself Edgar?

[lhtd]

I had read morphine but maybe that was just the interview Noah bombed somewhere in Europe during that time.

[colin]

if i kept a diary of my thoughts while listening to ac stoned id probably think i was crazy

they have the best approach to lyrics and singing technique. the music is the most important. if u have to change a word so the song gets better so be it. relating a personal experience to people through lyrics is over rated anyway. case in point the guy next to me at avey's solo show who screamed along with oliver twist and thought they were like totally having a moment together when in reality he was just prolly on h desperate for a cathartic therapy ting. no u idiot the guy not avey. i like to dig funny holes.

[El Camino]

I like to just interpret their lyrics as fleeting thoughts and observations tied to a different theme for each song. I guess I see the lyrics as another instrument in which to communicate the feeling or concept of the song, along with texture, instrumentation, tone etc, presented as detached pieces of imagery rather than a proper narrative.

I mean I know that a large portion of AC tracks have flowing lyrics that tell stories and detail situations but since I don't listen to their music focusing on where the lyrics are heading, it works better for me to hear it in that way.

[hear_smiles]

Yes.

[coollodges]

Hey remember this thread? I guess there is already a new song interpretation thread though.

[roopn]

I'm with ElC. Lyrics are usually the last thing I think about with music, especially with anco. They do such a good job of creating an atmosphere or a space or a mood that the sounds of the words feel more important than what they're actually saying. Once I'm really familiar with a piece of music I might look into the lyrics and that will enhance the overall experience, but I'm not one to draw my own conclusions from them. I just let them be and enjoy them for what they are and the picture they paint. I think the only time I create my own meaning like that is if I mishear some words

[BelgianWaffle]

lizard wrote:

I know that personally, I look into the meanings of all songs when listening to them for the first time in order to understand them more. But sometimes when I'm listening to AC or any affiliated production, that i think there might not actually be a "meaning". I read an interview in which Avey said that people overanaylze their songs when they're really just making music. I can't help but think there's gotta be much more to it than that. AC just gives me the feels I guess. It's clear when songs have straightforward lyrics(My Girls and most of MPP for that matter), but it's hard to decipher other songs or whether they should even be deciphered. Haha. Any thoughts?

If you write songs maybe you find that the process is freed up a lot if you don't over do things. And sometimes song lyrics don't seem to make sense but they fit for the artist. And maybe it may make a lot of sense but not consciously. Not even to the artist. But maybe later it might.