[Stories and Games]

i really get the sense that the middle section of defeat is sort of a gordian knot for avey. you can tell he cares a whole lot about this song and wants to get it just right; that section has gone through two huge rewrites at this point, tho imo it still doesn't quite sound nailed down the way the rest of the song clearly is. would make sense that it's still not finished assuming it's not gonna be on time skiffs. it's odd that when the song debuted at music box three years ago the middle section is what everyone was really excited about, and that first version of it is still the one most fans think is by far the best. both fascinating and frustrating when there's a big disconnect between how the artist and the audience perceive the same work. i feel for him, i've been in that place before as an artist where you know how you want the song to *feel* but you can't quite pin down how you want translate that into concrete sound.

[Stanshant]

I like Avey's melody in the middle section of Defeat, but I miss the more energised original melody and I hope that will remain as a harmony. I find the plinky plonky synth melody a little too stark compared to both the original guitar smashes and the daft harpsichord version. A lot of the synths in these performances remind me of Spirit, which is probably fundamentally good.

Edit: Yep, well said.

[Tropic]

Passerby lyrics are totally different. Can't really make out the new ones but they don't sound as good. I'm sad

Also really hope they haven't nerfed the autotune this much on the record. Then it really will be the most straightforward AC release... though that in itself can be seen as a form of experimentation for them. Still, I was really into the autotune stuff, think it worked so well with three of them singing.

[Fovrodi]

Really dig the squiggly synth in 24(?), and Prester John gives total dub-y vibes.

[Hellomark]

Yeah idk if I like the new Passerby as much, but I wouldn't say they ruined it or anything. Hard to tell from that video anyway, not the best sound quality. Still really hoping it will be on the album.
The new Strangers tho, oh man.. they made that one sound beautiful.

[fuji]

still resisting listening to the majority of the new songs but i caved and listened to genies because i was really hoping they would make sea of light not boring af and they succeeded........... have a lot of hope rn

[Tropic]

We Go Back really does remind me of an older AC song. Maybe the Bat You'll Fly shout is right. The jauntiness and mouthful of words choruses with the dueling vocal lines

[conswaygo]

awesome wrote:

pitchfork set will be live streamed

https://pitchfork.com/news/pitchfork-mu ... -and-more/

Ooo nice. Who is our expert at capturing streamed video? We need you

[dio]

Highway is so sick. fits great with this vibe. CIncci video is lit.

[dio]

Fickle Cycle is best of the new old songs, there I said it. Need 2 listen to Unsolved more but when they first started playing it I thought the riff was fast Flowers again lol.

so I wonder if this is the new-song heavy first-leg of a longer tour? or...? maybe more dates for Oct/winter or even early next year? with even more old cuts mixed with the Time Skiffs stuff to further support record? sure everyone is being really tentative what with recent Delta surge. time will tell.

[Hellomark]

I got the impression that these were the only shows they would do this year, then probably do a longer tour in support of the album next year whenever it comes out.

[dio]

Wait okay, not only is the sweet Fever Ray style vocoding gone from Passerby, but he is fucking with the melody pretty hard. Um. That might just be like a personal thing where that it keeps it interesting as a musician but uhhhhhh. It was perfect 2 years ago. I say that w/ love. Hope we get the old mode on record.

But just like w/ changes to Cherokee, this can be remedied by simply layering harmonies of the '19 and '21 versions oh shit is that why its called Time Skip/ffs holy shit I figured it out.

he's layering the pre and post pandemic experience on top of each other on record and giving us new versions now that will temporally destabilize the record-listening experience, boy howdy

[dio]

just cuz I saw them 4 times in '16 and both music box shows in '19 doesn't mean I should have 2 miss out on this whole live era, FUCK yal for no CO date (jk love yal I guess)

[Saferintheflowers]

What is up everybody!!!!!!!! Omg there has been so much I’ve been wanting to say but I could not remember my password until Mr. Conner I’m back in!! Sooo…
Let me start off with Defeat because it’s been my favorite and my most anticipated song to hear again since the 2019 shows…. Defeat was at 98% perfect (imo) in 2019. I feel like the middle parts synth sound was only thing that felt off on the entire song. The lyrics for that section was 100% perfect. Now the 2021 defeat synth sound for the middle is 100% but the lyrics aren’t. I obviously want to hear an album version before fully assessing them but at this point I don’t like how the lines are just being repeated. I really like how the 2019 lines all added up to a short like tale. But again it’s hard to even know what he’s saying in the ‘21 version so ya idk yet.
Surprising enough my 2nd favorite song of all these new ones has been Stride Right. I’ve listened to that one the most so far. Not that I’m not a josh fan, I love every he contributes/ creates, I’ve just enjoyed his Vocals 3rd best.but ya that song is so heavenly pimp
Presser John and car keys are so amazing too omg.
So far I’ve only listened to the first show and I just saw that someone posted the 2nd show to YouTube and pitchfork is tomorrow streaming and I’m probably gonna wait to watch the 2nd show until after the pitchfork stream.
This next album is gonna be so fuxking awesome … as long as defeat is on it and doesn’t get treated as an EP bc that’s gonna be some bullshit. It goes so perfect with the rest of the other songs and when I toss in the album I wanna hear Amongst the rest of them

[ingenue]

the feeling store wrote:

Sir hunks and I have been emailing about me passing his audio through my analog mix chain. I know he's on the road still seeing them but I'm excited to hear how his recording(s) turn out and hopefully I can see what I can do to squeeze out any extra sonic joy!

Yum. What’s in your rig?

[roopn]

just catching up on the thread, still haven't listened to any new shows, only heard snippets

jfw7 wrote:

the new songs are good but i think the instrumentation can be hard to mix and exposes little slips or uncertainties in a way that other versions of the band (more samplers or more guitars or more hocketing) might have covered up.

ingenue wrote:

I agree with the poster who argued that the mixing of the instrumentation this time around might be more crucial than in the past, and might be why some of these songs seem to be "less psychedelic" than what we've come to expect from Animal Collective—the weird stuff seems to be a bit buried.

just wanted to say these are spot on to me. Hope everyone keeps this in mind listening deeply to these boots and making judgements because there'll be plenty you can hear that is just circumstantial/random and plenty that you can't hear that will come through in the studio

[roopn]

awesome wrote:

pitchfork set will be live streamed

https://pitchfork.com/news/pitchfork-mu ... -and-more/

alarm set to vibe at 9am for me heh

[bullseye]

roopn wrote:

awesome wrote:

pitchfork set will be live streamed

https://pitchfork.com/news/pitchfork-mu ... -and-more/

alarm set to vibe at 9am for me heh

Lucky you, it's 1am for me
Well, I wanted to give a bi-phasic sleep pattern a try anyway, so that'll be a perfect day to start.

[hedgecore]

they gotta bring back the buzzsaw sound at the end of

Spoiler: show

fickle cycle

Spoiler: show

Spoiler: show

poo poo pee pee

[Tropic]

Passerby now honestly sounds like an earlier demo to the finished '19 version. It's insane

[evan6032]

Anybody recording pitchfork? Gonna be at work still when they go on

[cody]

i hope they really weirded these up in the studio

[bullseye]

Broke (aka Strangers) sounds like Mario 64 water level music now. Kinda cool, but I think I prefer the more upbeat 2019 version.

[speen]

Strangers is really beautiful. i miss the high-pitched danse manatee style synth during the chorus, but damn, i just love this song so much.

cody wrote:

i hope they really weirded these up in the studio

definitely feel this though.......

[Tropic]

I think we are all gonna be taken aback when we heard the studio versions. They'll be plenty weird

[Cooper]

AC are so good because they have weird sounds but the songwriting itself is also emotionally psychedelic. I think this straightforward sound is more about the confidence they have in their melodies at this point in their career

[evan6032]

They have a history of burying a lot of beautiful melodies and instrumentation with over production like on centipede and pbvsgr so hopefully they don’t do that here but still keep it weird

[roopn]

Cooper wrote:

AC are so good because they have weird sounds but the songwriting itself is also emotionally psychedelic. I think this straightforward sound is more about the confidence they have in their melodies at this point in their career

Very true and I was thinking a lot of the psychedelia this time around is also coming through with how much countermelody is going on, trading around the stage constantly in songs like car keys

We've heard it before with the layered vocals in guys eyes and taste - I think it's going to shine on the album where it can be super duper tight and the mix balanced perfectly

[destiny]

this era of ac is like unmasked, and it kind've makes me uncomfortable in a good way, maybe a great way. the layer of sound that traditionally is in every ac set, the water droplets, field recordings, random shit what have you is just not there or not as pronounced and more in the back. i love that sound wall and have associated it with ac, and thats why im uncomfortable, even though it's still there its just not as prominent. we are just honest to jesus listening to them play their instruments and its still pretty fuckin weird. like the melody of gem and i HAHA.

i really hope the songs stay as revealing in the studio, though i know they'll do something to them which is fine, because im usually 95% behind every creative decision they do. these are really intimate and emotional songs so i think they benefit from the clarity. for example tho, listen to jam unsolved mysteries and then this tours version. the main sample is replaced by an arpeggiating guitar line and the bubbles are neat in the back of the mix, as it sounds. i LOVE Jam unsolved myst, but it kind've reveals how sad of a song it is? "whats sadness anyways, ooo we stopped crying like a child" is so sad feeling or wistfl. like the song is just a fuckin gut punch stripped down.

2nd to roopn's point to, there are so many creative trade-offs vocal or instrumental in all these songs that its gonna be so sick hearing them inhabit a recorded space!

also strangers is 10x better imo that song got fuckin insane

[Fovrodi]

FEEL ON1NE!!! wrote:

i really hope the songs stay as revealing in the studio, though i know they'll do something to them which is fine, because im usually 95% behind every creative decision they do. these are really intimate and emotional songs so i think they benefit from the clarity. for example tho, listen to jam unsolved mysteries and then this tours version. the main sample is replaced by an arpeggiating guitar line and the bubbles are neat in the back of the mix, as it sounds. i LOVE Jam unsolved myst, but it kind've reveals how sad of a song it is? "whats sadness anyways, ooo we stopped crying like a child" is so sad feeling or wistfl. like the song is just a fuckin gut punch stripped down.

2nd to roopn's point to, there are so many creative trade-offs vocal or instrumental in all these songs that its gonna be so sick hearing them inhabit a recorded space!

also strangers is 10x better imo that song got fuckin insane

P sure the guitar part is in the Jam version and previous live iterations, just higher in the mix and less effected.

wrote:

Im sort of uncertain as to what hidden melody you are talking about in unsolved mysteries. Do you mean my guitar part..the really pitched up chord progression?
Start on G for the first chord (oh look) then move your hands up in the same G position to the fifth fret for the second chord (that sweet boy) then move your hand in that position up to the seventh fret for the third chord but instead of baring the A string as you would for a G chord bar it on the seventh fret as well (his mother cried) then back down to the g position on the 5th fret (my child) and back to G for (his laces). This is the same progression for the "whats pain" part Does that make sense? Im definitely never going to be a guitar teacher. The "Where are the still unborn" chords are played in that 7th fret position but instead on the 12th fret ("where are the") and then moving to the 10th ("still unborn") but in half that time as the other parts (back and forth).

Thats basically what the song was like when i wrote it. Its the first song i ever wrote for AC in standard tuning. That basically how i hear the song everytime we play it so i cant really say if its hidden or not. Because the guitar part and the vocal melody go hand in hand for me once ive written it that way it usually doesnt change too drastically unless josh does somthing very dramatic to the chord change with his guitar part. There is also an organ part in the song which is more or less based on this guitar part but a little different...maybe thats what your talking about? In the live version its sort of offset so it changes before the guitar does at a certain point but i dont think it makes the melody that much different. I guess perspective is key here cause i dont hear the live version of UM as being very different from the recorded version at all.

[destiny]

Fovrodi wrote:

FEEL ON1NE!!! wrote:

i really hope the songs stay as revealing in the studio, though i know they'll do something to them which is fine, because im usually 95% behind every creative decision they do. these are really intimate and emotional songs so i think they benefit from the clarity. for example tho, listen to jam unsolved mysteries and then this tours version. the main sample is replaced by an arpeggiating guitar line and the bubbles are neat in the back of the mix, as it sounds. i LOVE Jam unsolved myst, but it kind've reveals how sad of a song it is? "whats sadness anyways, ooo we stopped crying like a child" is so sad feeling or wistfl. like the song is just a fuckin gut punch stripped down.

2nd to roopn's point to, there are so many creative trade-offs vocal or instrumental in all these songs that its gonna be so sick hearing them inhabit a recorded space!

also strangers is 10x better imo that song got fuckin insane

P sure the guitar part is in the Jam version and previous live iterations, just higher in the mix and less effected.

yeah its for sure in the Jam but its still a bit obscured behind the main sample and behind a ton of effects, this version is right up in the foreront with not a lot of noises covering it, i shouldve made that clearer my b

[rohcti]

I like Aveys "oh yeah " during In the Flowers

[jfw7]

what about the "yups" in defeat

[tdegenaro]

passerby cinnci has to be my favorite of the bunch how friggin beaaaautiful is that shit

[drewblzz]

evan6032 wrote:

They have a history of burying a lot of beautiful melodies and instrumentation with over production like on centipede and pbvsgr so hopefully they don’t do that here but still keep it weird

X100000

Please don’t muddy these beautiful melodies with noise just to “weird these up”. That kinda thing just doesn’t feel new or exciting anymore.

[hedgecore]

bummed Dave isn't singing about "Perfect Boners" anymore in Bolder

['Worms']

jfw7 wrote:

what about the "yups" in defeat

i'm surprised this didn't come up until now.....by far the weirdest change to any of these songs

if he only did it once in that performance i'd think it was just a lil live flourish but it seems like it may just be the way that part is written now, not really sure of what to make of it lol

[speen]

jfw7 wrote:

what about the "yups" in defeat

this is so funny to me. seems classic avey but also undercuts probably the most beautiful moment of any of the new material…. who knows lol

[Tropic]

Oh lol I also assumed the yups were one offs. So gas if those are what end up torpedoing Defeat

[jfw7]

there’s no way that’s a studio thing but I hope it sticks around live. I was into it at the show