[FAF]

i think it might be a baseball reference, since other parts of the song reference camden yards, etc. a double would be a potential outcome of an at bat in baseball that would, indeed, be pretty "sweet".

[Spinoza]

jswaap wrote:

Guys -
what the heck does
'the sweet of the double'
mean? (in on delay lyrics)

i've been trying to figure it out for weeks and i'm really not sure...
all i do know is this is one of my favorite arrangements of words i've ever read/heard. the way it sounds in my head gives off a feeling i'm still trying to pinpoint.
also- i've never felt this way about an arrangement of words before, and maybe it's because it has the word sweet in it (although i really don't think it's the reason) but i actually taste this sentence. it has a flavor.

haven't looked at the lyrics much but I took it as a lover's delight...the delay is your partner. but you are one entity or one mind/soul, the delay is an aesthetic illusion or play. the sweet double are lovers.

[Stanshant]

Is there a second meaning beyond the double/delay/echo? Does it need one? It's a very Avey wording.

[hybrination]

two is better than 1

[jswaap]

hybrination wrote:

two is better than 1

ha pretty duh, simple enough

[edisdecent]

so this song, to me, is about finding inspiration via unexpected events in life that have a profound impact on you. the top layer of the song is about avey and another person 'probably a girl' and spending time with that person, but sort of letting them take the lead and following roughly in their footsteps by way of subtle inspiration. sort of like: things pass you by, you don't realize it, but everything that happens will later be revealed to have formed you into the person you are today, in however small of a fashion.

on the second layer, the song is about "delay" in the audio processing sense. they use it in their music, but from experience i believe they are discussing it's generative, springboard effect on producing music. essentially, you can take a simple bit of audio, get creative with delay, and have an entirely new element emere that can be contextualized differently than the original, unprocessed bit (finding new rhythms to hold on). and often, i assume especially for this band, the use of delay has an inspirational, sparking effect when it comes to finding a missing piece to a song, or even just writing one from scratch (so turned on by the delay).

how this fits into the overall album:

i think this album is about the intersection of human evolution (from caveman times to now) and the advancement of artistic expression, trailing right behind it (another layer of "on delay"). this might be more of reaching than the other points, but think about the placement of 'natural selection' on the album and how that could fit into this theme: it's a song about the guiding qualities of evolution, how it is not a planned process, not necessarily by a source of intelligence, but due to the nature of our universe and a tendency with evolution to 'optimize' a species to fit it's current surroundings. we are evolving in a specific way determined by our enviornment and art is a natural extension of this process. as humans evolve, art evolves.

i also interpret the big heads on their stage set for this tour as artsy/abstract easter island heads. art has been around since the dawn of man, but as intelligence spreads and technology advances (and as new techniques emerge, possibly including delay), art advances alongside it (my steps will follow).

i could be way off, but i know animal collective doesn't write a song with a single explanation for the lyrics. the whole album is tied together and each song fits in the narrative somehow.

anyway, tight track

[marienbad]

This song has got me falling in love with the post-winter, trees blooming springtime world once again. The trees, the sun, the love I'm seeing everywhere. Wowow so many good feels.