[Stan]

Genuinely difficult to pick worst for me, it feels like a beautifully balanced record. In terms of live ecstasy to studio niceness, it's Bro Sport or House.

[awesome]

also frightened the worst for me with that stinky fart bass

bluish my fav..... so lush and those bells are so dreamy......... i'll always wonder if it's my fave bc it was the only "new" song on the record tho

[zauderhaft]

same for me. also frightened is the only track I don't really care for.

[foxtrot]

Ha! As usual with AC I’d honestly say Also Frightened is my fav (or maybe equal with Bro Sport) and Bluish is probably least fav (even though it’s very cute and still a rad song).

[superspookyghost]

It's actually pretty hard for me to pick my least favorite on MPP but for an entirely different reason - I dislike almost all of it

[Stories and Games]

guys eyes is an easy worst on that record for me, one of a handful of golden era AC songs i truly just don't like. do think they figured out how to make it good on the PW tour tho

[rohcti]

Yeah Guys Eyes really hit a pinnacle on PW tour

[Cooper]

Guys Eyes and Taste are obviously the low point of MPP, with the transcendent Lion bringing it all back into heaven-tier

[Hellomark]

Cooper wrote:

Guys Eyes and Taste are obviously the low point of MPP,

I know this is the contrarian thread but this is absolutely insane to me, like I didn't know there were AC fans that felt this way lol. Perhaps for this reason and this reason only, I respect it.

I do agree that the PW tour Guys Eyes is amazing though. And also there are no songs on this album I dislike, it's a miracle of an album, but Summertime Clothes and In the Flowers have just had the most diminishing returns for me.

[archie]

jesus chrtist

[Cooper]

Lol that’s just how highly I rate the rest of the album. Those songs are still great

[dansemanatee]

Hellomark wrote:

Cooper wrote:

Guys Eyes and Taste are obviously the low point of MPP,

I know this is the contrarian thread but this is absolutely insane to me, like I didn't know there were AC fans that felt this way lol. Perhaps for this reason and this reason only, I respect it.

I do agree that the PW tour Guys Eyes is amazing though. And also there are no songs on this album I dislike, it's a miracle of an album, but Summertime Clothes and In the Flowers have just had the most diminishing returns for me.

Yea fr… Taste was my favorite for a long time, kinda hard for me to pick one so it might as well be. Also frightened is one of my favorites on the album but it took me awhile to used to the “no-o-o-ow”‘part it kinda disrupts the rhythm and it’s a little corny imo. Really love the 2007 version, there are elements on the studio version that I like a lot but I feel in some regards it got kinda downgraded on the album. Didn’t think that many people felt that way about those songs and also the live vs studio versions. don’t really think any of the songs got any worse in the studio

[Stories and Games]

i've become such a huge fan of also frightened lately hehe, i think it's one of avey's best lyrically

actually MPP as a whole i think is avey at the top of his lyrical game, no wincers at all except for maybe a few stray lines in bluish

[Alcohol]

“Taste” was perfect. (See the BBC radio version.) And they fucked it up royally in the studio.

[Stories and Games]

i didn't experience the live to studio transition of the MPP era in real time, so i get to just experience the two versions of taste as just different takes on a very good song, but i do feel what brian said in some interview about the original version just feeling slightly too angular and awkward to fully work

[Stan]

He's talking total shit there. OG Taste was way better, tempo, sounds, emotive. New one was much more awkward with those distracting clattering drums and the verses are too woozy and dreamy. Dave's melody barely registers. Taste was the original 'they fucked it in the studio' before they decided to make that a fundamental element of their creative process. I understand they lost an instrument/some sounds so had to start from scratch. I'll say not entirely their fault on that basis but thank God they recorded a good version for the BBC first.

[Stories and Games]

huh interesting. i can totally believe i would've ended up agreeing with you if i hadn't heard the studio version first; as it is it's an "everything you think sucks about it is what i think makes it great" situation lol, to me that song is supposed to be woozy (i do think the melody registers just fine for what it's worth). i've also never understood what's supposed to be so bad about studio monkey riches compared to live and thats a similar case of never having the chance to get demoitis over it in the first place, would be v interested to hear what ppl's issues are with that one

at the same time i do get a little salty over studio daffy duck as compared to that climax it had live with my favorite colors as a coda so idk! weird band huh

(edit to say i am also very grateful they did that bbc recording of it so that there exists a version of the song in its og style but with the far better album lyrics)

[Avey Tane]

OG studio Taste exists

[superspookyghost]

Stories and Games wrote:

i've become such a huge fan of also frightened lately hehe, i think it's one of avey's best lyrically

actually MPP as a whole i think is avey at the top of his lyrical game, no wincers at all except for maybe a few stray lines in bluish

Always bugged me when people assume Also Frightened is a Panda song because the lyrics alone should pretty much immediately indicate Avey wrote it.

Yeah off the top of my head the only two Avey lyrics that bother me on MPP aside from Bluish which is actually pretty bad are:

"with no fashion clothes cause you can't eat those"

and "who wants to smell the fine aroma".

But if we consider On A Highway an Avey MPP-era song, and it was recorded with the rest of the album, then it has by far the worst line Avey has ever written. "There are some workers pissing, it starts my bladder itching."

[Stories and Games]

oh yeah on a highway on the whole feels like ill-advised stream of consciousness writing to me lol, there are more than a couple lyrics in there that fall totally flat for me

also i think that taste line is "flashy clothes," not fashion? i've always kinda liked that line, feel like it manages to be odd/absurd without losing the plot, which can't always be said of avey's lyrics (your mom and i to pat your head and dress your lettuce)

also i have gotten genuinely worked up over the also frightened authorship debate before lmao, that song is so aggressively an avey composition. i think the confusion mostly comes from the fact that noah ended up writing such a distinctive vocal harmony that it kinda ends up feeling like the main melody, especially with how high in the mix it is on the record

[blindmowing]

For me, even more than the (d)evolution of "Taste," my biggest gripe with studio MPP is that they took the OG piano sample out of "My Girls." I loved the much more raw take of My Girls circa 2007.

If I had to change one thing about MPP, it'd be that they used a few more of the acoustic instruments/samples found in the early versions.


Still, all will be forgiven when in ten years they release a bootleg from one of their perfect 2007 sets on vinyl.

[Stan]

blindmowing wrote:

For me, even more than the (d)evolution of "Taste," my biggest gripe with studio MPP is that they took the OG piano sample out of "My Girls." I loved the much more raw take of My Girls circa 2007.

I totally agree with this, too. OG House was my favourite song ever, like indescribable excitement and insane replays, reminds me of some of the best times of my life. That starker piano sample and the raw vocals were so atmospheric and thrilling. I loved all the discussion about Dave's evolving vocal lines, he used to do that deeper melody which we referred to as like a 'soul' singer vocal. I fucking loved that so much. Even ignoring the synthier, watery final production, the harmonies that were lost, omitted or buried are probably my biggest regret about that song. Fortunately, it's still pretty fucking transcendent but there were a few people on here who described it as sounding like the Backstreet Boys and I do think there's something to that. It was never better than just a piano loop and that euphoric Dave/Noah round.

[dansemanatee]

Avey Tane wrote:

OG studio Taste exists

[blindmowing]

Stan wrote:

blindmowing wrote:

For me, even more than the (d)evolution of "Taste," my biggest gripe with studio MPP is that they took the OG piano sample out of "My Girls." I loved the much more raw take of My Girls circa 2007.

I totally agree with this, too. OG House was my favourite song ever, like indescribable excitement and insane replays, reminds me of some of the best times of my life. That starker piano sample and the raw vocals were so atmospheric and thrilling. I loved all the discussion about Dave's evolving vocal lines, he used to do that deeper melody which we referred to as like a 'soul' singer vocal. I fucking loved that so much. Even ignoring the synthier, watery final production, the harmonies that were lost, omitted or buried are probably my biggest regret about that song. Fortunately, it's still pretty fucking transcendent but there were a few people on here who described it as sounding like the Backstreet Boys and I do think there's something to that. It was never better than just a piano loop and that euphoric Dave/Noah round.

That's a great point about the vocals, though I didn't mention it specifically because I feel their vocals were far better live than in studio for all the MPP songs particularly. They had such a visceral, primal, hard-hitting and emotive way of singing live which they often dialed down for studio, most prominently heard on MPP.

Bolded a part I agree with wholeheartedly. MPP-songs circa 2007 in general had this very rabid, wild energy -- felt far closer to Ark/early 00s-levels of primal energy than their later more polished output. Which is odd to think about now because MPP does not sound much like early 00s AC at all -- which was the point I'm sure. Break new ground and all that. But there is an alternate dimension where they don't meet Ben Allen, decide they want to get freakier/darker than SJ rather than more wet/polished/synthetic, and record the MPP songs in a much more stark, frenzied, raw and vicious way, with thumping disparate beats/samples, unhinged vocal performances, OG off the rails melodies, and all the rest.

The production choices for MPP and the songs in relation to their live counterparts of course has been a topic beaten to death, but as someone who has been more obsessed than ever with their 2007 boots, having all this history in between that moment and now, this has been on my mind more frequently than ever these days.

[dansemanatee]

It is kinda crazy how much the mpp material changed from 2007-2009. Feel like each year is significantly different. 2007 is an alternate glimpse at the whole era as a whole, most of the 2008 setlists look like greatest hits compilations, chocolate girl and comfy obviously being highlights, then 2009 comes in and they take the songs even further after it had already been released, I want to call it a victory lap but even that feels like it’s selling it short.

[blindmowing]

Yeah, it's a stunning evolution and I love the band for how much they're willing to play with and evolve their songs over time. It's why I love them; why they're the absolute greatest. And I love MPP, it's a masterpiece. Just hoping for an immortalized bootleg one day of these alternative early versions!

[NightlifeMingus]

best version of “taste” is la blogotheque

[dansemanatee]

How does everybody feel about the 2011 and 2017 versions? Personally like both a lot, the 2011 just sounds exactly like how I would expect a chz version to sound, feel like it works well with the sound of that era. The 2017 version I like especially, kinda cool to see it get stripped back like it was originally.

[Cooper]

Hip hop MPP WCWAR is better than the sung tongs version

[dansemanatee]

Cooper wrote:

Hip hop MPP WCWAR is better than the sung tongs version

Doggy—>hey light —>WCWAR is just fucking perfect. I know ballet slippers is kind of a letdown considering how much good material from that era they snubbed but at least the cut of that one on there is really good too.

[Stories and Games]

i feel like the 2017 version really cemented taste as the ultimate "no definitive version" AC song, especially because they were doing three other MPP songs on that tour and all of them were basically just the studio versions plus live drums (plus the extra vocal bits in guys eyes). it feels like they're always trying to achieve that "more of a shapeshifting ethereal entity than a fixed object" effect to some extent, but with taste i feel like they've pulled it off harder than with any other song probably

[dansemanatee]

Stories and Games wrote:

i feel like the 2017 version really cemented taste as the ultimate "no definitive version" AC song, especially because they were doing three other MPP songs on that tour and all of them were basically just the studio versions plus live drums (plus the extra vocal bits in guys eyes). it feels like they're always trying to achieve that "more of a shapeshifting ethereal entity than a fixed object" effect to some extent, but with taste i feel like they've pulled it off harder than with any other song probably

Yea I feel like that’s the whole point of playing old songs live. It’s always great to hear an old one regardless but it’s so much more worth it when it’s when they’ve changed it to fit with the current era. Lablakely dress feels the same way. Even the danse and hollindagain versions sound completely different from each other, and then they turned it into one of their most beautiful acoustic ballads at the other music show and then that shit became a part of fireworks!

[superspookyghost]

dansemanatee wrote:

It is kinda crazy how much the mpp material changed from 2007-2009. Feel like each year is significantly different. 2007 is an alternate glimpse at the whole era as a whole, most of the 2008 setlists look like greatest hits compilations, chocolate girl and comfy obviously being highlights, then 2009 comes in and they take the songs even further after it had already been released, I want to call it a victory lap but even that feels like it’s selling it short.

I don't know, I truly think Animal Collective may have been very bored of a lot of MPP songs by 2009 which is unfortunately when everyone else only started to discover them. By time they STARTED their 2008 tour, MPP was already recorded and they had already been playing the majority of those songs for about 10 months. Then they had to keep playing them for another 2 years. 6 months after ST was recorded, Feels songs were debuted. 7 months after Feels was recorded, SJ songs were being debuted. 4 months after SJ, MPP songs were being debuted. With MPP, some of those songs ended up being played for 3 years straight.

During those tours after an album is recorded, that's normally when about half the set list would be full of new songs - but after MPP they only ever had 1 new song (Bleed) and WWIWS I guess, so their only options were really to either play more of MPP or rework old songs with the glaring absence of drums, guitar, and Deakin, and that sort of served to fill the spots in the setlist as "new" songs. Otherwise I think having to play Daily Routine, My Girls, and Guys Eyes 100+ times in a row would have driven the band insane..

That being said I think what you really see from 2007-2009 is Animal Collective really experiment with how to "fill out" some songs and make the experience of seeing them live a lot different than what you would get on the studio recording, which is definitely something that probably had a learning curve in terms of doing that sort of thing with 3 people playing synths.

[destiny]

I fuuucking love 2017 taste. They are just going to keep making that song. The hissing synth line is so fucking lit. Sounds great live too.

[dansemanatee]

FEEL ON1NE!!! wrote:

I fuuucking love 2017 taste. They are just going to keep making that song. The hissing synth line is so fucking lit. Sounds great live too.

Can’t wait for them to bring it back whenever they do. Cannot believe they played fucking taste and water curses on the same tour. Not to mention fucking pride and fight.

[destiny]

dansemanatee wrote:

FEEL ON1NE!!! wrote:

I fuuucking love 2017 taste. They are just going to keep making that song. The hissing synth line is so fucking lit. Sounds great live too.

Can’t wait for them to bring it back whenever they do. Cannot believe they played fucking taste and water curses on the same tour. Not to mention fucking pride and fight.

yeah, 2016-17 had some of the wildest setlists. I remember ruminating on what the set would be for PW's live debut thinking they wouldn't go to slow and they played fucking bees lol

[Stories and Games]

and then it went away for a while then came back in 2017 as the most frantic song in the set lmao

[dansemanatee]

love how they turned fucking bees and loch raven into uptempo club bangers and then took the faster more concise stuff from PW and dragged it out a bunch.

[destiny]

Them drums on 2005 Rev green making me feel a type of way. Hahaha. Damn

[opposite field]

blindmowing wrote:

. But there is an alternate dimension where they don't meet Ben Allen, decide they want to get freakier/darker than SJ rather than more wet/polished/synthetic, and record the MPP songs in a much more stark, frenzied, raw and vicious way, with thumping disparate beats/samples, unhinged vocal performances, OG off the rails melodies, and all the rest.

The production choices for MPP and the songs in relation to their live counterparts of course has been a topic beaten to death, but as someone who has been more obsessed than ever with their 2007 boots, having all this history in between that moment and now, this has been on my mind more frequently than ever these days.

I think about this all the time in relation to MPP. Ben Allen ruined them and they're only just recovering years later.