[dio]

I think I kinda wish Feels had a different cover and was a little gnarlier. or the back cover was the front. I think I need to listen to those first Feels boots cuz I kinda wonder what it'd sound like with even a drop of Ark vibes added back in

[Jam]

top ten from this era

1. Winter's Love
2. Loch Raven
3. I started playing the game . . . in, like, the game.
4. Habit or a Rib
5. Ogres Ogres Ogres Ogres Ogres Ogres
6. Banshee Beat
7. I Just Called to Say I Love You
8. Tie for Kids on Holiday and Visiting Friends
9. Prospect Hummer
10. Fickle Cycle (missing from this era??)

[captainlunatic]

dio wrote:

I think I kinda wish Feels had a different cover and was a little gnarlier. or the back cover was the front. I think I need to listen to those first Feels boots cuz I kinda wonder what it'd sound like with even a drop of Ark vibes added back in

yeah, if i had one complaint about the album it's that it could've been a little bit more experimental. i actually remember when it first came out i had the same thought... like, "damn, this sounds so tame compared to sung tongs" and especially compared to ark. but over time i've really come to appreciate the sequencing and the almost wall-of-sound production style (which they dropped for sj but brought it back with mpp). and the songs themselves are of course masterpieces. so many all-time classics on that one... grass, purple bottle, banshee beat. those three alone are almost too good to be on the same album together

[bullseye]

Sung tongs:
Probably my favorite AC record in terms of production. Everything sounds full, crunchy, warm and natural, even with some sounds being pretty out there and weird. It's one of the best examples of merging electronic and acoustic sounds IMHO.
I initially thought that the album is rather front heavy with the good songs, but after repeated listens the second half also starts to unfold. Good lovin outside is probably my favorite. This and mouth water are just baffling from a rhythmic perspective, I don't even know how to count them, it's basically all just feeling and flowing. Visiting friends is transcendental. It's like infinite dressing table or two sails, but chill. I don't know how often I've listened to sung tongs but it's an album I'll probably never get tired of.

Prospect hummer:
I like the EP a lot and I like vashtis vocals but it's really hard not to think about how great it could have been when listening to the boots of that time. So many gems didn't make the cut or didn't turn out so well in the studio, IMHO. Learning how to dive is so nice and energetic on the other music boot, the studio version doesn't even come close. Imagine it with a sort of production as on WCWAR, it would be glorious (they also completely butchered baby day in the studio). I also like prospect hummer much more with pandas lead vocals. They could have glued together baleen sample and always you and just make it an epic 20 minute meditation in the style of visiting friends. It doesn't make any sense to think about all these "what ifs", but they could have done a sung tongs 1.5 with all the material they were sitting on. I'm glad we at least have some decent boots though!

[Slothrope]

Dusty wrote:

FEEL ON1NE!!! wrote:

Ima write something scathing for people EP. The only misstep in the entire animal collective catalog, even though all of the songs are great, especially tikwid, which is one of the best of the era.

We would live in a perfect world if the People EP ended with 206 or Sponge Luke instead of the live People

From a beach always sounded like it would fit perfectly on People to me

[dio]

^From a Beach exists in a no-space b/w Water Curses and FBK and its tragic as hell.

Glad people are shouting out Mouth Wooed Her and Good Lovin's insane rhythms. I mean so much of ST is insane for that reason, but I'm more impressed by the crazy vibes-based strumming in Good Lovin, then the hyper fast and quick-changing Rabbit

Good Lovin is my favorite far and away. Certainly was not initially... that would be Leaf's/Love and Soft Voice. But damn Good Lovin. It's gorgeous.... and like... romantic. I like how it sounds like someone is hushing avey sometimes. And Panda has some of the most insane back-up Vox oat on it.

Good Lovin >>>>>>>> most music

[scrambledgreggs]

listened to Prospect Hummer and Berserker. Prospect is not only their best EP but possibly my favorite EP of all time? the story behind it is so incredible, bringing a legendary folk singer out of retirement through a mutual appreciation of each other's music. and then she went on to release two more great albums! I get the sentiment that these songs could've also been great with traditional Avey/Panda vocals but I think Vashti's presence just makes it so much more special. her voice also matches the childlike nature of the songs/tongs just as well

"Baleen Sample" is quite possibly my favorite instrumental AC track, it just sounds so calming and hypnotic. feels like standing by the seashore and getting gently caressed by the breeze while being in the presence of so much life all around in the air and sea. "It's You" has that same drifting/flowing quality to it as well

Berserker sounds like Young Prayer stretched out with really inventive ambient techno beats placed underneath it. I love that style of Panda's vocal delivery, no discernible lyrics but just really emotional/yearning/longing sounds in his moaning. "Swan" really goes places over its 25 minutes, that segment in the middle with the extreme vocal processing is slightly terrifying but just goes so well with what the rest of the track is doing. I'm usually not a fan of ambient techno but Jane manages to make it so interesting, I lost count of how many times the loops changed and beneath the surface there's just so much going on

[Slippi's Applesauce]

Prospect also might be my favorite EP of all time. it's so easily digestible, the three actual songs are great, and baleen sample is a nice soundscape to lose yourself in.

i probably listen to it 2 times a month, it's become very meditative and comforting to me. immense calm. i'll throw it or just another diamond day on when im feeling rough and snuggle up in some blankets or something. not to mention the title track, which is a top 5 ac song imo

[foxtrot]

Awesome to see some serious love for Prospect Hummer. Will do some proper replies when I’ve got some time. This week is a winner!

[Fovrodi]

wrote:

Vashti: I met them for dinner and it was a great night… How do you remember it?

Josh Dibb: I remember it kind of as being magic. The impact that record [Just Another Diamond Day] had on me. There've been many records in my life which have had a huge impact but yours is definitely in a very, very elite few. I mean, I was such a young kid back then in comparison to how I feel now. I think we'd come across your record through the fact Dave and Noah had been working on other music in New York and at the time it was such a hub of people unearthing new stuff. Literally today I was texting with Brian… We both realised we'd started listening to your records again more recently having given it a break, and it was like being stunned again for the first time… And at the time being told that there was an opportunity to be able to meet you? You seemed like a myth. It was one of the first times I'd gotten to meet someone that had made something in my life. To meet you, and have you be so real and so down-to-earth and at the same time still have this incredible voice and this incredible sensibility with music; that continues to be very meaningful for me.

VB: That's so great. Thank you, thank you! I didn't know I had a voice really, until you all just pushed me… I thought that I was going to be doing backing vocals. But actually it was a bit more than that. 'You do this bit!' [laughs] 'Okay, okay I'll have a go'. I didn't know if I was going to sing at all, but you all made me sing like I didn't know I could. You made me really enjoy singing again which I hadn't done for many many years.

I am crying and you are also crying
https://thequietus.com/articles/17672-v ... -interview

[captainlunatic]

beautiful

ac really are healers

[foxtrot]

So beautiful. Adds even more to the beauty and love in that little EP.

[blindmowing]

We've entered the period of AC music that has a strangle hold on me. Sung Tongs-MPP is the greatest 4-album run in the history of music, constant companions in my life, each of which is considered my favorite album of all time given the season:

Winter = MPP
Spring/early summer = Sung Tongs
Late Summer = Feels
Autumn = Strawberry Jam

Sung Tongs, when set in the context of the indie music landscape, is an anomaly for how it ended up connected to the freak folk movement Devendra Banhart-Joanna Newsom were heading up in SF. While the band denies any correlation to the scene or the label, it's undeniable that the music fits in as a psych-y, experimental deviation to the sound coming from the west. This is notable to me because so much of their music before this was much more connected to the New York sound/east coast bands/vibes. This is the first album where I say they begin to take over TERRITORY, sonically. This is when their pilgrimage really takes them far away from home, and I'd argue every album since Sung Tongs sees them exuding a different portion of land within America. This album was recorded in Colorado, but it sounds a lot more like New Mexico or something more southwest.

ST perfectly encapsulates my childhood experience, the wonder and curiosity and mania of my pre-teen days wandering around drinking the sun and sword-fighting imaginary animals. They have moved on from forest children to holidaying hooligans, galivanting through campgrounds and lakeside resorts, darting into obscure forests and emerging into the serene countryside with a trunk of electronic gadgetry to go along with their acoustic guitars and floor tom. It's perfectly boisterous, uncouth, wide-eyed and imaginative. Lyrically, they have distilled the spirit of Animal Collective's early years perfectly on this record...capturing the essence of their joy and free-spiritedness. Sonically it is such a treat, little electronic sounds pinging and ponging, fragments of field recordings twisting and twirling and tumbling and seeping through the songs. Vocally, they're going gangbusters, using every kind of voice and inflection they can think of, from elated hollers to garbled mouth experiments to whispers to chants. These songs showcase the greatest mix of a straight song being warped just enough. Songs for daydreaming, hoola-hooping, wandering, driving, anything you'd do on a summer's day... oh man, and I'm just touching the surface.

IIIIIIIIIIFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF I was HARD PRESSED to pick a favorite album of all time/favorite AC album, I think I'd have to go with Sung Tongs. I'm listening to it again and... this album changes my DNA every time I listen to it, it changes the color of my eyes.

[madameghostly]

Feels: perfect. a masterpiece in every way. i've loved this album since the day i first heard it, and there's always something new to discover when i hear it again (like i think this listen was the first time i ever really paid attention to the backing harmonies on the bridge of Grass. gorgeous stuff. also it took me this long to realize both Young Prayer 6 and Loch Raven have "i will not give up on you" in the lyrics. funny that)

just about every song on this album is an S-tier AC song in my eyes. i've even come to appreciate Flesh Canoe. no, really, i went into this thinking "oh man, this is gonna be great. this album would be perfect if it wasn't for Flesh Canoe" and then the album was like "oh, would it? BOOM" and a switch got flipped in my brain and i was like "holy shit i'm making funny faces in the mirror of the bathroom rn" and that's not even mentioning the fact that i just looked up the lyrics on genius to make sure i got that line right for the joke and saw an interview snippet where Avey said the song was partially about his relationship with Panda BUT I DIGRESS

as you can probably tell, i kinda run out of actually meaningful things to say when i know an album so intimately and have such an intense love for it (fitting for the AC album that's the most acquainted with intimacy and intense love), but i suppose that doesn't matter too much. Feels good man

People: (Bandcamp version cause that's the one i have) this thing is a Tikwid sandwich on stale bread. okay, maybe it's not that bad, but when you put a song like Tikwid next to People and My Favorite Colors... y'know? like they definitely could've made something better with some of the other outtakes they had in the Feels era

more b-sides!
Must Be Treeman: JOKE REVIEW 1:

Spoiler: show

"you're gay you're gay you're gay you're gay you're gay you're gay you're gay you're gay you're gay you're gay you're gay you're gay you're gay you're gay you're gay you're gay you're gay you're gay you're gay you're gay you're gay you're gay you're gay you're gay you're gay you're gay you're gay you're gay you're gay you're gay you're gay you're gay"

JOKE REVIEW 2:

Spoiler: show

SINCERE REVIEW: it's alright. AC ambient sound collages really shine when they have room to breathe, and i almost want to say 3 minutes isn't enough?

Fickle Cycle: now this is what i'm talking about. this song is a certified banger for sure. could've easily been on Feels

[foxtrot]

Fuck me there are some write ups here that get me a bit aroused. You’ve out done yourselves CA. I have Feels on for the third time this weekend. Gonna write a fucking thesis on Monday. Hope you don’t mind.

[phodicae 2]

foxtrot wrote:

Fuck me there are some write ups here that get me a bit aroused. You’ve out done yourselves CA.

foxtrot you're like the main one writing beautiful paragraphs getting me embarrassingly pumped about albums i hadn't had on my mind recently.

all of you are straight up better than pitchfork, if there was a journal that just had like all of you not hating on albums, but just describing why you liked them, i'd read it.

I'm loving these Sung Tongs one because that was the first album of theirs I really got into (not time-it-came-out wise)

[foxtrot]

madameghostly wrote:

Sung Tongs: i'll be honest, i used to think this album was just... alright. i liked Leaf House cause it was the first song, i liked Who Could Win a Rabbit cause it was the single, i liked Winters Love cause it was in that one simpsons episode (that's a lie, i liked it before i watched that one simpsons episode, but it probably helped some), i liked Kids on Holiday cause it was a bop... and that was about it

nine words: Animal Collective perform Sung Tongs at Pitchfork's 21st Anniversary. in something that might become a bit of a recurring theme going forward, i never really appreciated this album until i heard it live, and when i discovered that wonderful youtube video in mid-2018, oh boy, you bet i appreciated it

from the primal, manic energy of Leaf House, Who Could Win a Rabbit, and We Tigers, to the slow burn ambience of The Softest Voice and Visiting Friends, to everything in-between, there's a lot to love on Sung Tongs, and while i feel like it loses a bit of energy near the end (not to say i'm on #TeamWhadditIDoneIsAnAffrontToGod), i have no qualms about calling this one of their best

That performance really is amazing. I wonder how knowing their full discography effects how someone gets into this album. For me, I first listened in 2004 so the thrill of the new was massive. I had never heard anything like it. Also, 2nd half is massively underrated. Listen to Mouth and Good Lovin is isolation to unlock their singular awesomeness.

madameghostly wrote:

Prospect Hummer: hey, a new EP from Campfire Songs! i love this band!

okay, seriously though, time for a little more honesty - apart from the title track (see above), i never really paid this EP much mind, which, as has been proven many times in this thread and will probably be proven many more times in the future, was a mistake on my part. Vashti Bunyan adds so much to the vocal songs, which certainly weren't thin on the ground to begin with, and Baleen Sample is a very nice instrumental as well. all in all, a very good companion piece to Sung Tongs

i don't know if i really wanna call this a bonus because it's one song but
Baby Day: pretty good. i don't think i've heard enough live versions to determine if this is worse or better than those, but i think they did a pretty good job translating it to the studio

Prospect must not be forgotten! Baby Day is a rad little tune but I think he definitely has a lot more energy live.

dio wrote:

I will never listen to Feels, it's one of my least favorite in terms of conceptually the idea of listening to it front to back. Too saccharine. I would need 2 be in a whole other place in my life emotionally to do that.

Wow I think you might be the first person I have ever encountered who speaks about Feels this way. Certainly the first fan. Feels is incredibly special to me. I don't see it as saccharine at all. That implies that it is overly sentimental. I think of it as dizzying and carnal. Full of love and warmth but never sickly sweet or cheesy. Anyway, I'll rant about Feels in a bit. Totally shocked at this take though.

dio wrote:

Anyway, Tongs I've always listened to thru out the years... and basically all their albums did this for their first 10 years, but who would have seen Tongs coming after Indian. Or even after Campfire honestly?

The leap from Ark to this is probably their most mind blowing.

dio wrote:

Up until MPP they're just constantly rounding out what an AC track could even sound like, picking all these different colors and vibes... Melodically maybe there's a bit of the first few albums in Sung Tongs and there's that whole *tribal* energy that showed up on Ark and sorta Danse (but interestingly not Spirit at all really) and there's the acoustics of Campfire of course, but up til then the Beach Boys vibes weren't really there at all. And the peppiness of Spirit's melodies that had kinda been eroded for 3 albums re-emerges brighter and poppier than ever.

I always find this journey so fascinating. Avey could clearly write a pop melody but went on this crazy path between Spirit and Sung Tongs.

dio wrote:

I think I kinda wish Feels had a different cover and was a little gnarlier. or the back cover was the front. I think I need to listen to those first Feels boots cuz I kinda wonder what it'd sound like with even a drop of Ark vibes added back in

This could definitely help you get into the album more. I personally just love the variety. The fact that the same band who makes me want to become a wild animal and live in the forest (Ark) also makes me want to cuddle my wife on the couch (Feels) is just awesome.

captainlunatic wrote:

yeah, if i had one complaint about the album it's that it could've been a little bit more experimental. i actually remember when it first came out i had the same thought... like, "damn, this sounds so tame compared to sung tongs" and especially compared to ark. but over time i've really come to appreciate the sequencing and the almost wall-of-sound production style (which they dropped for sj but brought it back with mpp). and the songs themselves are of course masterpieces. so many all-time classics on that one... grass, purple bottle, banshee beat. those three alone are almost too good to be on the same album together

I guess just because its lush and beautiful doesn't mean its not experimental. One of the things that is so wonderous about the album it manages to be experimental without sounding harsh or 'difficult'. Pretty rare to get an album that is so original yet still so comforting and inviting.

bullseye wrote:

Sung tongs:
Probably my favorite AC record in terms of production. Everything sounds full, crunchy, warm and natural, even with some sounds being pretty out there and weird. It's one of the best examples of merging electronic and acoustic sounds IMHO.

Totally agree! Full, crunchy, warm, natural. Perfect descriptors.

bullseye wrote:

I initially thought that the album is rather front heavy with the good songs, but after repeated listens the second half also starts to unfold. Good lovin outside is probably my favorite. This and mouth water are just baffling from a rhythmic perspective, I don't even know how to count them, it's basically all just feeling and flowing.

And Dave and Noah just feel so in synch with each other than it never comes across as clunky. It just flows.

bullseye wrote:

Prospect hummer:
I like the EP a lot and I like vashtis vocals but it's really hard not to think about how great it could have been when listening to the boots of that time. So many gems didn't make the cut or didn't turn out so well in the studio, IMHO. Learning how to dive is so nice and energetic on the other music boot, the studio version doesn't even come close. Imagine it with a sort of production as on WCWAR, it would be glorious (they also completely butchered baby day in the studio). I also like prospect hummer much more with pandas lead vocals. They could have glued together baleen sample and always you and just make it an epic 20 minute meditation in the style of visiting friends. It doesn't make any sense to think about all these "what ifs", but they could have done a sung tongs 1.5 with all the material they were sitting on. I'm glad we at least have some decent boots though!

I love Prospect Hummer but being an album listener most of the time I kinda do this for every era. A 'what if they threw all the other songs from the era together and made an extra album' type thing. Thye have enough material that there could pretty much be a 2.0 for every album from Ark through to PW.

dio wrote:

^From a Beach exists in a no-space b/w Water Curses and FBK and its tragic as hell.

Agree.

dio wrote:

Good Lovin is my favorite far and away. Certainly was not initially... that would be Leaf's/Love and Soft Voice. But damn Good Lovin. It's gorgeous.... and like... romantic. I like how it sounds like someone is hushing avey sometimes. And Panda has some of the most insane back-up Vox oat on it.

Good Lovin >>>>>>>> most music

Panda's stuff cracks me up in the best way. I fucking love this song too.

scrambledgreggs wrote:

listened to Prospect Hummer and Berserker. Prospect is not only their best EP but possibly my favorite EP of all time? the story behind it is so incredible, bringing a legendary folk singer out of retirement through a mutual appreciation of each other's music. and then she went on to release two more great albums! I get the sentiment that these songs could've also been great with traditional Avey/Panda vocals but I think Vashti's presence just makes it so much more special. her voice also matches the childlike nature of the songs/tongs just as well

Yeh the story is so heart warming and helps give the Ep this real sense of warmth and support. Love it.

scrambledgreggs wrote:

Berserker sounds like Young Prayer stretched out with really inventive ambient techno beats placed underneath it. I love that style of Panda's vocal delivery, no discernible lyrics but just really emotional/yearning/longing sounds in his moaning. "Swan" really goes places over its 25 minutes, that segment in the middle with the extreme vocal processing is slightly terrifying but just goes so well with what the rest of the track is doing. I'm usually not a fan of ambient techno but Jane manages to make it so interesting, I lost count of how many times the loops changed and beneath the surface there's just so much going on

Yeh, this is definitely the best Jane. I think it sets an atmosphere really effectively. Going to give it a close listen in the next little while. Would love to hear Panda incorporate the wordless yearning style into some new stuff.

Slippi's Applesauce wrote:

Prospect also might be my favorite EP of all time. it's so easily digestible, the three actual songs are great, and baleen sample is a nice soundscape to lose yourself in.

i probably listen to it 2 times a month, it's become very meditative and comforting to me. immense calm. i'll throw it or just another diamond day on when im feeling rough and snuggle up in some blankets or something. not to mention the title track, which is a top 5 ac song imo

Yeh, you're spot on. It is so intimate and calming.

Fovrodi wrote:

I am crying and you are also crying

What a bunch of absolute champions.

blindmowing wrote:

We've entered the period of AC music that has a strangle hold on me. Sung Tongs-MPP is the greatest 4-album run in the history of music, constant companions in my life

I'd include Ark in that and make it a 5 album run. Absolutely with you though. This stretch of albums has enriched my life more than any other music in existence.

blindmowing wrote:

each of which is considered my favorite album of all time given the season:

Winter = MPP
Spring/early summer = Sung Tongs
Late Summer = Feels
Autumn = Strawberry Jam

This works beautifully! I think MPP gets winter because a lot of us would still associate it with when it freebirded right?. man that was special. the greatest christmas present ever. will never forget my first listen (but i'll save that for later).

blindmowing wrote:

Sung Tongs, when set in the context of the indie music landscape, is an anomaly for how it ended up connected to the freak folk movement Devendra Banhart-Joanna Newsom were heading up in SF. While the band denies any correlation to the scene or the label, it's undeniable that the music fits in as a psych-y, experimental deviation to the sound coming from the west. This is notable to me because so much of their music before this was much more connected to the New York sound/east coast bands/vibes. This is the first album where I say they begin to take over TERRITORY, sonically. This is when their pilgrimage really takes them far away from home, and I'd argue every album since Sung Tongs sees them exuding a different portion of land within America. This album was recorded in Colorado, but it sounds a lot more like New Mexico or something more southwest.

It was always funny seeing music critics/journos trying to find a place to slot AC into during those years. They were so original, prolific and varied and the music writers just couldn't figure it out. One minute they were New York noise makers like Black Dice, then they were freak-folk like Devendra, then they were indie rock like Arcade Fire, then they were chillwave, indietronica, etc etc.

blindmowing wrote:

ST perfectly encapsulates my childhood experience, the wonder and curiosity and mania of my pre-teen days wandering around drinking the sun and sword-fighting imaginary animals. They have moved on from forest children to holidaying hooligans, galivanting through campgrounds and lakeside resorts, darting into obscure forests and emerging into the serene countryside with a trunk of electronic gadgetry to go along with their acoustic guitars and floor tom. It's perfectly boisterous, uncouth, wide-eyed and imaginative. Lyrically, they have distilled the spirit of Animal Collective's early years perfectly on this record...capturing the essence of their joy and free-spiritedness. Sonically it is such a treat, little electronic sounds pinging and ponging, fragments of field recordings twisting and twirling and tumbling and seeping through the songs. Vocally, they're going gangbusters, using every kind of voice and inflection they can think of, from elated hollers to garbled mouth experiments to whispers to chants. These songs showcase the greatest mix of a straight song being warped just enough. Songs for daydreaming, hoola-hooping, wandering, driving, anything you'd do on a summer's day... oh man, and I'm just touching the surface.

This is so good. You're absolutely spot on blind. Love the images they conjure up for you. Hard relate.

madameghostly wrote:

Feels: perfect. a masterpiece in every way. i've loved this album since the day i first heard it, and there's always something new to discover when i hear it again (like i think this listen was the first time i ever really paid attention to the backing harmonies on the bridge of Grass. gorgeous stuff. also it took me this long to realize both Young Prayer 6 and Loch Raven have "i will not give up on you" in the lyrics. funny that)

just about every song on this album is an S-tier AC song in my eyes. i've even come to appreciate Flesh Canoe. no, really, i went into this thinking "oh man, this is gonna be great. this album would be perfect if it wasn't for Flesh Canoe" and then the album was like "oh, would it? BOOM" and a switch got flipped in my brain

Awesome that it has clicked for you. This song is fucking incredible. Always think about my wife and I living together and just letting our guard down. Beautiful beautiful stuff. And I agree, the whole album is absolute perfection.

madameghostly wrote:

People: (Bandcamp version cause that's the one i have) this thing is a Tikwid sandwich on stale bread. okay, maybe it's not that bad, but when you put a song like Tikwid next to People and My Favorite Colors... y'know? like they definitely could've made something better with some of the other outtakes they had in the Feels era

Harsh! I think People is underrated. Its like happy Ark. Great middle ground between the screamy intensity of Ark and the lush sonics of Feels. Its just such an awesome vibe too. Love this song. That said, Tikwid is next level.

madameghostly wrote:

Fickle Cycle: now this is what i'm talking about. this song is a certified banger for sure. could've easily been on Feels

For sure. Always wish Tikwid and this had been squeezed onto Feels. Really, anything to make Feels longer. That album should just never end.

phodicae 2 wrote:

foxtrot you're like the main one writing beautiful paragraphs getting me embarrassingly pumped about albums i hadn't had on my mind recently.

Ha! Glad people are enjoying mine as much as I'm enjoying theirs. Also, no shame! I am so fucking pumped atm. About albums I've loved for 15 years! Let alone TS (don't listen to Walker yet, don't listen to Walker yet, don't listen to Walker yet...)

phodicae 2 wrote:

all of you are straight up better than pitchfork, if there was a journal that just had like all of you not hating on albums, but just describing why you liked them, i'd read it.

I've actually thought about this a few times. A kind of 'if you can't say anything nice' type thing. Just me ranting about why I absolutely adore a bunch of art. Just nothing but good vibes.


Alright, FEELS.

Hold me. Hold me back actually. There aren't enough hours left in the week to write down everything that's great about Feels. This album (just like MPP a few years later) arrived at the perfect moment in my life. A time when I was giddy with love. The woman I shared that love with is now my wife. We have three kids, 5 chickens and a cat. And I am so incredibly grateful that I have the love in my life that I do. This album isn't saccharine for me. It is genuine, wholesome, electrifying, carnal, lustful, comforting, warm, dizzying and rich with stories and feelings that I never tire of.

My 1st listen this week was so different to previous weeks in this schedule. For Ark, I knew I wanted to be alone in nature. For Danse I knew I wanted to be focussed on all the details. For Feels I knew I wanted to be on the couch with my wife. In the end our cat joined us too. It was another blissful listen to Feels notched up. The couch, love, comfort, cuddles, domesticity, warmth, electricity, smelling her hair, petting my cat, soaking up every ounce of the album. Hence no specific notes.

My review for Feels over on RYM is just a bit of fun really. It's about how psychedelic and sensorial the album is:

My eyeballs are bleeding apple sauce and my finger nails have turned into halved grapes. My feet are melting into the concrete and my mouth is drooling ginger honey.

But the album means so much more to me than that.

Feels is like eating perfectly ripe Peaches at the perfectly right moment. Not just an album I love but an album I’m ‘in love with’. This album is like a honeymoon period that never ends. Everything just feels so full of excitement and potential. Every brush against their skin sending tingles up your spine.

Every track tells a part of the story for me.

Did You See The Words = getting comfortable with each other's bodies, wondering if the passion will remain as we grow and mature (thankfully it has so far)
Grass = the nervous energy about budding romance
Flesh = living together and letting vulnerability in so that love can flourish
Purple = the thrill of the thought ‘I am in love with someone”
Bees = the way love makes you more mindful, gentle, a more empathetic part of the ecosystem
Banshee = reflecting on all the relationships that got you here. they ended but it was worth it.
Daffy = giddy and disoriented and watching the relationship grow and change
Loch = cuddles on the couch. commitment and dependency in the most intimate and healthy way
Turn = wondering if we're too smitten, trepidatious yet hopeful about how this will grow and develop

Anyway, Feels is pretty good hey

[Slippi's Applesauce]

wow, i loved your song by song analysis at the end. most positive outlook on feels that i think i've ever read, most people have the relationship turning sour at the midway point. i loved your take so much more and have to say i agree. makes me look at the album in a new light tbh

for me, feels is a perfect comfort album, and probably in my top 5 albums of all time. it's perfect. every moment feels precisely calculated and plays a part, from the howls at the end of did you see the words to panda's crooning lullaby in turn into something. it's an album to escape to, and not only invites but welcomes all feelings, good and bad. doesn't matter where you've been or where you're going, these are human emotions that we all share, and this album makes me feel like it's okay to feel

[foxtrot]

Probably has a lot to do with my personal connection to it. Luckily, my relationship hasn't gone sour so maybe I see the album differently!

Just listened again and wrote a bunch of stuff:

I’m listening to Feels again now. It is honestly a kind of unquestionable magic without parallel.

Did You See The Words simultaneously feels like its marching along a railway line AND tumbling down a waterfall. The children at the start are a little piece of Geo wizardry setting the scene for something rich with love and delight. The melodies are absolute perfection. Vocals, piano etc. This song is an absolute wonder. The way it builds into this orgasmic climax is electrifying and picture-perfect. A flawless classic on an album full of them.

Grass is like a first kiss every time. Just captivating and thrilling from beginning to end. I can never decide which AC album has Panda’s best drumming but Feels has to be his most definitive. The whole standing up and smashing the toms thing is THE Panda Bear drum style. The chorus is also the perfect AC moment. Nothing says AC more than subverting pop music conventions by making the chorus a super catchy little vocal melody sitting underneath repeated screams. Another example of AC opening an album with two HUGE songs that lead perfectly into a ‘settler’ for track 3 that helps you really get comfortable in the album.

Flesh Canoe is just awash with warmth. The high backing vocals are so life sustaining. I love the way the piano sparkles like splashes of water on the pool tiles in the sun. The final line of the chorus is magic. And Panda’s big note right at the end is like this ultimate climax/resolution in the very final moment.

The Purple Bottle might be the greatest song of all time. Panda’s beat is his most perfect. The ultimate combo of the primal/tribal thing and the pop feels. The backing vocals here are some of their most fun. The whole song has this incredible, unique melody (the kind only Avey could write) and this insane, infectious momentum that drives things to the thrilling climax. Every moment here is inspired genius. The layers of backing vocals and percussion during the bridge. Fuck me. There is nothing else like this. The Panda part at the start of the last section with the stick taps and snare hits is so much fun to follow. The ‘heyoooo’ vocals are fantastic. And the ‘crush high’ section with the ‘whooooa! wanna get that’ is probably my favourite part of any song ever. Nothing has ever captured the thrill of being alive better.

Bees is the perfect comedown. Absolute serenity. The autoharp providing a whole new textural element. This song makes we want to lie in a field, watching the sun illuminate the long grass. The fact that Avey finishes this with the most unusual and idiosyncratic vocal imaginable (‘rehh rehh rooh rooh’) is just the icing. Feels has Avey’s most incredible vocals. He whispers, screams, coos, yelps and rooh roohs his way into my heart. It is an absolute wonder to behold. The way the piano cascades around the autoharp makes me melt every time. While Panda rings out like some benevolent spirit over the top.

Banshee as we all know is untouchable. Geo providing these subtle touches that generate this utterly beautiful atmosphere of wistful nostalgia. Some of Avey’s best lyrics, guitars flowing elegantly under the song. I love how subtle Deakin’s part is at first, then as the song grows he starts to move around more and more. Lifting the song further and further into our hearts. Obviously the ‘swimming pool’ moments are some of the most spine-tingling in the AC catalogue. The backing vocals are, again, some of the most inventive I’ve ever heard. I love the way this song rides for so long on that ‘heart in throat’ feeling. Never tipping over. Just this slow swelling of emotion that starts in your chest, then your throat, then reaches right up into your face.

Daffy Duck is like this psychedelic cleansing ritual after the huge emotional ride of the last few songs. For me, this one is always about slowing down and revelling in the textures. Its about being mindful and in the moment. Letting the sounds and lyrics evoke all these images in my mind. I love how the guitar break literally turns you down. It’s like its saying ‘no no, you can take life even slower’. I love it. I love swimming in that pink lagoon, watching the goats and sheep.

Loch is another moment of total bliss. That synth loop is so crystalline and perfect. Like looking at a human or animal and being unable to fathom their beauty. This part is also a great addition to the textural variety of the album. Panda’s tom and stick heavy drum part neatly tying it to the rest of the album’s sounds. Panda is obviously heavenly here. So many details to love in this song. I particularly love picking out Avey’s subtle ‘mmm mmm’ lower harmony that sneaks in at around 3:35.

Turn Into Something returns us to the giddy heights of the first half of the album. I see the sequencing on this album reflecting a budding relationship in the sense that the first half is thrills and lust and nervous energy, and the second more about settling into being comfortable with each other. Turn Into Something reminds us of the passion. I love how Avey switches up his vocal style here. Full yokel! I picture him just thrashing around lost in the energy and complexity of the feelings being expressed. The massive guitar part after the first chorus is a highlight for me. I love all the noises in the second chorus. There is a SHITLOAD going on there. And then it all disappears and the whole song just slumps onto the couch and melts. Washes of love and intimacy and post-coital bliss floating over us. This final passage is goose-bump inducing. Panda’s vocals are incredible, and the layers of ambient texture are just paradise. The piano too. I’m getting tingles right now. The absolute perfect end. Total ecstasy. Everything that is good is here. Everything worth living for. All of the shit stripped away and nothing left but beauty and love.

Sounds soppy af I know

[Namesarehard]

I'd like to add to the "grumpy single" perspective on Feels. We can sometimes have problems w listening to it exactly because it's great! I would never have emotional problems with listening to an opera aria that is supposedly about love, bc people in the 18th century had completely alien notions about that anyway, or a barbershop quartet singing about "my sweetie" that I parse as "that was the standard topic, doesn't mean anything", or music that is about being a Very Manly Man and falling for a woman because she is [traits I do not particularly want to embody, or at least to have prioritized by others to that extent]... but Feels is primal (in the emotional-intensity sense), it's about connecting to others in a breathtakingly honest and real way, and is just so incredibly happy/hopeful (the opposite of syrupy!) that it can hurt at some darker, more pessimistic moments. Which is a thing that would not happen if the album was less perfect. (And I'm not even a native speaker of english, which makes me good at just not decoding text in songs, but that does not help at all, because the rest of the sound is just as deeply saturated w emotion.)

[dio]

^I feel that. usually single here so that's why I HATE Feels. Nah, joking kinda cuz I feel that only really applies to Grass and Purple Bottle but those are like love songs I canNOT relate to. The energy is infectious, and live they own, but some love songs I can just vibe to regardless of my current relationship status but these are completely alien sounding to me as far as crushing on someone goes.

And the childhood-y/Darger esque art actually massively bums me out. Nasty, nasty color palette. Still love early live Feels and Loch Raven tho.

[foxtrot]

Can understand the above perspectives but they are a looooonng way from my feelings about the album!

[scrambledgreggs]

dio wrote:

And the childhood-y/Darger esque art actually massively bums me out. Nasty, nasty color palette. Still love early live Feels and Loch Raven tho.

had no idea anyone had opinions like this. Feels artwork is probably my favorite artwork of theirs and in my top 5 all-time album covers. fits the music so perfectly. it's also been an endless source of inspiration for my own collage art

[foxtrot]

Same here. I absolutely love the Feels cover. That and Ark are my favourites and probably the only two I'd have on my wall.

[Jam]

My Sung Tongs record came in today, might just be that I listen to things so loud in my headphones without realizing but the bass sounds a lot quieter on vinyl

[foxtrot]

BERSERKER:

Probably my favourite Jane release (first three tracks anyway). I feel like this one nails all the things they hinted at on the two EPs. It also gets a fair bit more variety in there. Covers all the bases nicely.
I love the way the masses of reverb and hiss just engulf you from the start of the album. Also love the Person Pitch feel of the main loops used. Panda’s vocals capturing that heavenly, ethereal quality that he has mastered during this period. However, the melodies that pop up here are much stickier than previous Jane records. I feel like this song occupies a peaceful transition point between Young Prayer and Person Pitch. It is vaguely melancholic but still feels at ease. A really beautiful track and my favourite on the record.

There is something a bit Beaches and Canyons about Agg Report. I think it’s the way the noises squeak and chirp a bit like mechanical seagulls. The synth has a bit of new age feel to it. Unusual for an AC related project but I’ve always felt it works. Leads you into the ambient techno beat nicely. The whole thing has a bit of new-age feel really. And the keys/piano bit that comes in is super ‘pretty ambient’ as well. The whole thing has a very soothing springtime feel to it. Even the way the vocals are treated recalls Beaches and Canyons for me. A kind of spacey, calming, meditative take on the peculiar coastal vibes of that record.

Slipping Away goes pretty hard by comparison. So crunchy and bangin’. That beat is great. Plenty of variety thrown into it too. They balance things well. Maintaining plenty of momentum but still chopping things up and changing things enough to keep it engaging. Love how warped and alien the vocal stuff sounds. Also love the way it all gets demolished at the 8 minute mark. Sounds like the song just gets washed, kicking and screaming, down a plug hole.

Swan doesn’t do it for me as much as the other three unfortunately. It starts with that heavy synth drone and you can tell the track is going to be loose and massive. And I do love how desolate and alien the start is. The organ sound works well with Panda’s distant, ghostly wails. BUUUUTTTTTT, just like ‘Solid Gold Wall’ I wish the track didn’t have the distortion/blow out. Clearly deliberate but doesn’t work for me at all. Even when Panda starts to get a bit more weird/intense with the warped vocals, I think it would have worked better without the blow out. Stick some delay or something on it to give the sense of space and alien/celestial vastness. Anyway, I also feel like this track drags quite a bit. I enjoy the first 6 mins or so but the distortion starts to annoy me and there is no real development. Without the distortion I might have been happily lost in the ambience but with it I am taken out of things. The plinky plonky part that comes in towards the end is cool. Maybe another subtle techno thump and some building textural layers in the last 5 minutes would have saved it. As it stands though, a bit of a flaccid end to an otherwise solid album.

Back to gushing about Feels and Sung Tongs for me!

[scrambledgreggs]

don't forget the Japanese bonus track "Pop" as track 5 on Berserker!

[Fovrodi]

Don't think I've ever read this snippet before

wrote:

Bunyan says she fell in love with the group’s music “instantly”, captivated by its “inventiveness and humour”. Hummer isn’t a fully-fledged collaboration, though: it’s billed as an Animal Collective release and Bunyan is singing songs written by Portner and Lennox. Nonetheless, it feels like the EP’s beatific radiance emanates from the singer as much as the songs.

“My daughter says she can hear me smiling on the title track,” says the singer, “and I was. I loved having the freedom to sing as I wanted. I was still finding my voice after burying it for years.” The experience has encouraged Bunyan to embark on her first album in more than 30 years

oh, also this!

wrote:

most of the music is Mou spinning records made by other people. “It’s like a mix CD with toasting over the top,” says Lennox, who is confident that despite the music consisting mostly of “other people’s backing tracks and rhythms, we make the songs our own because the way we move from track to track is unique.” When I tell him his cloud-drift vocals remind me of Robert Wyatt’s scattier excursions such as Matching Mole’s “Instant Pussy”, Lennox says he’s honoured by the comparison, then pre-empts the next flattering reference point I had lined up. “Do you know Arthur Russell? I first heard that guy’s records a year or so ago, after we did the Jane stuff, but I was like, ‘wooah, I sound like this dude.’ I felt sort of bad!”

http://reynoldsretro.blogspot.com/2009/ ... s-cut.html

[roopn]

thanks fov, how do you find this stuff?

[foxtrot]

awesome quotes

[Fovrodi]

roopn wrote:

thanks fov, how do you find this stuff?

Archiving the dudes has been a pet project of mine (off and on) since high school, there was a certain point in recent years where I was unemployed and broke and couldn't sleep so it was one of the few things in my life that felt meaningful or valuable, especially finding new music through their mixes/DJ sets and sharing it

[foxtrot]

its awesome dude, keep it up!

OBOROED/CIRCUS LIVES

Overall, I think this album succeeds at least a little more than the first one because of its long-form nature. These tracks, purely by their length, announce themselves as ambient pieces that are more about texture and mood than any sense of melody/progression/structure etc. They both slowly evolve through a series of loops that each appear for a lengthy period, repeating many times over. Lots of gurgling and whirring. Lots of malfunctioning blips and bloops messed up in that Copeland kinda way. A mood of disquiet. Things lurking in the shadows. Nothing ever appears to cause you to run. There is just the sense that there is something there. The creepy talking/laughing section right through the middle of the first track is particularly strange/unsettling. There are stretches that really do go forever here. I do dig the way Circus Lives builds in to this cool, carnival noise track in the middle. Not something I listen to often (maybe once every 4 or 5 years out of curiosity), but I think it does what it sets out to do reasonably effectively.

[Slippi's Applesauce]

Have been too busy listening to walker the last few days but getting back into it with people. I usually don’t enjoy the title track all that much, but it really spoke to me today. Lotta cool guitar and piano. Tikwid is magical and I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of it!

I’m glad they left my favorite colours off of feels personally, it’s a little too goofy sounding. Still a unique listen

[foxtrot]

People is so underrated. I think because it doesn't neatly fit into any era. It wouldn't have worked on Feels at all. It has the kind of unbridled energy of Ark but with a lot more clarity and positivity. It falls into this strange middle ground. Not chaotic and angry enough for Ark, not playful enough for Sung Tongs, not lush enough for Feels and not dry and tightly composed enough for SJ. It belongs nowhere but it fucking owns.

[scrambledgreggs]

Slippi's Applesauce wrote:

I’m glad they left my favorite colours off of feels personally, it’s a little too goofy sounding. Still a unique listen

nah it should've been the outro to Daffy Duck where it belongs

[blindmowing]

Feels

the crystal palace visceral sensual love album. the Doctess special (she named the album). the most quintessential AC guitars. "THAT" chord change on Banshee Beat. "THAT" synth-piano combo daydream on Loch Raven. all the instruments out of tune. the beginning of the clicky railroad sounds.

the first AC album i had a spiritual experience with...falling asleep on a hot day with the back half of the album soaking up my reality and squeezing out all my dreams, left to swim in hazy visions of swimming in a lake of clouds. Daffy Duck's bleary eyes. Loch Raven's meditative hypnotic twirl into the loops of innocent, romantic reverie. the rave up wake up romp of Turn Into Something.

the last album where AC sound young to me. the last AC album to sound raw, analog, primal. if i were to make a cut off of their "early years," it would end in 2006 after the People EP, this being their last big statement as a "new" band. by Strawberry Jam, at least in my eyes, they were a well-known entity, hyped to the sky, and essentially leading the Brooklyn indie scene with their inventive sounds... so, R.I.P teenage AC, R.I.P. innocence and young love and being underground favorites. you're about to hit the big screen.

[madameghostly]

Berserker: same stuff, different album, figuratively AND literally considering Slipping Away makes a return with minimal changes. of the new tracks, Agg Report and Pop (thanks scrambledgreggs!) draw my interest the most, the title track is an alright ambient opener and, if i'm honest, i really don't think Swan needs to be 24 minutes long. if i had to rank all the Jane releases, i think i'd put this between above Coconuts and below Paradise

Oboroed / Circus Lives: i was right, these long-form tracks really allow the particular Terrestrial Tones brand of tape music to shine... well, at least more than they did on Blasted. the way these tracks sort of shapeshift over time makes way for some pretty good noise. i feel very much the same as foxtrot, except i don't think it'll take me 5 years to revisit this because i quite liked it

also something i've realized recently, somewhat related to this whole relistening project: man, there are a lot of AC-related albums that i just straight up haven't listened to, especially out of the ones released in the past decade or so. i've already had quite a few (including two in this post lol), but i'll get to have a lot more discoveries in the coming weeks, and i think that's a bit exciting

[foxtrot]

blindmowing wrote:

Feels

the crystal palace visceral sensual love album. the Doctess special (she named the album). the most quintessential AC guitars. "THAT" chord change on Banshee Beat. "THAT" synth-piano combo daydream on Loch Raven. all the instruments out of tune. the beginning of the clicky railroad sounds.

the first AC album i had a spiritual experience with...falling asleep on a hot day with the back half of the album soaking up my reality and squeezing out all my dreams, left to swim in hazy visions of swimming in a lake of clouds. Daffy Duck's bleary eyes. Loch Raven's meditative hypnotic twirl into the loops of innocent, romantic reverie. the rave up wake up romp of Turn Into Something.

the last album where AC sound young to me. the last AC album to sound raw, analog, primal. if i were to make a cut off of their "early years," it would end in 2006 after the People EP, this being their last big statement as a "new" band. by Strawberry Jam, at least in my eyes, they were a well-known entity, hyped to the sky, and essentially leading the Brooklyn indie scene with their inventive sounds... so, R.I.P teenage AC, R.I.P. innocence and young love and being underground favorites. you're about to hit the big screen.

I LOVE the shit you write. You've got such a rich, evocative way of expressing why these albums are special. It's awesome stuff. I agree about this being the last album where they sounded 'young'. There is a definite shift in tone from SJ onwards. More weight on their shoulders, more challenges faced etc.

madameghostly wrote:

Berserker: same stuff, different album, figuratively AND literally considering Slipping Away makes a return with minimal changes. of the new tracks, Agg Report and Pop (thanks scrambledgreggs!) draw my interest the most, the title track is an alright ambient opener and, if i'm honest, i really don't think Swan needs to be 24 minutes long. if i had to rank all the Jane releases, i think i'd put this between above Coconuts and below Paradise

There is one really awesome album among these three releases I reckon.

madameghostly wrote:

Oboroed / Circus Lives: i was right, these long-form tracks really allow the particular Terrestrial Tones brand of tape music to shine... well, at least more than they did on Blasted. the way these tracks sort of shapeshift over time makes way for some pretty good noise. i feel very much the same as foxtrot, except i don't think it'll take me 5 years to revisit this because i quite liked it

I guess its just not a mood that I'm often looking for!

madameghostly wrote:

also something i've realized recently, somewhat related to this whole relistening project: man, there are a lot of AC-related albums that i just straight up haven't listened to, especially out of the ones released in the past decade or so. i've already had quite a few (including two in this post lol), but i'll get to have a lot more discoveries in the coming weeks, and i think that's a bit exciting

Awesome that this thing might lead you to check out some stuff you haven't heard before. For me, some of this Jane and TT stuff I've only ever heard once or twice. From here on in it is pretty much stuff I have totally flogged over the years though with the exception of TT Gyrus and the Geo solo live thing.

Still finding myself pumped for each week though. Purely because I'm holding off on listening to anything from those records until the designated week and because I've been loving giving these albums some really focussed/dedicated close listens (and writing/recording some thoughts). First time in ages for some of them. Plenty of more casual listening but yeh, haven't sat down with headphones and picked out every little nuance in a while. Also, the 'event' listens like the one I had with Ark in the forest. That was unforgettable.

[Fovrodi]

I think Feels was the era when goofy/nerd rock entered their DNA (I say that lovingly). Fickle Cycle of course, even Turn into Something in parts struck me as The Killers infected by bluegrass. Sung Tongs was playful and had a sense of humor, but more psychedelic and dizzying

[foxtrot]

Ha! True. Fully realised on PW!

I just listened to Bees and had this amusing image flash into my mind of a bunch of 'members of the court' at some royal palace all splayed out on the palace lawn while Avey (a kind of minstrel of the court) sang and played Bees. Meanwhile, Panda was the King, standing on the balcony of the palace and singing out his big backing vocals with arms outstretched. Everyone was dressed in 18th century attire with all the ruffles and curly long wigs.

Kind of like this: