Collected Animals

For once I would just love to walk down a random street and find sinister naked angel artwork to use for my music.

lollin at "lazy urchin"

yeah lolin at everything

For once I would just love to walk down a random street and find sinister naked angel artwork to use for my music.

lol

oh yeah i ended up listening to it [down there] finally that night and it was the perfect night i think so it must have really been FATE

"It's the perfect night
Everywhere the mud floods"
-Cemeteries from Down There

I've been jamming penny dreadfuls on piano ever since I learned it this summer.
So fun

I hadn't heard this album until two hours ago and I don't know what I was doing with my life but it sure was wrong.

Someday ill be as tall as a giant is so great to play on the piano

I hadn't heard this album until two hours ago and I don't know what I was doing with my life but it sure was wrong.

Nah man, youre only improving on a good thing. glad you gave it a listen though

Right on, Shovel. A good thing has become really, really good. Hearing this record for the first time was one of those rare occurrences where I know it'll become a part of my life for a long, long time. The vibe of it is just...ghostly! It sounds like the ultra reality that hides under what we experience daily.

I'd love to hear them make a record like this again, but utilizing their massive box of tools and growth as songwriters. I wasn't expecting the slowly building epics or the McCartney-esqe bass playing. Avey's a wicked bassist. And the piano playing is really, really cool.

The bass is synth, in fact

Well he's a wicked bass-synthist/synth-bassist anyway

Agreed I think that textural combination of synth bass, the brushed jazzy drums and acoustic guitar is absolutely wonderful and something I've never heard anywhere else. I also love the way Dave's voice is mixed quite thin and distant and reedy, he sounds almost ghostly. Although Feels is my favourite record, this probably has my favourite atmosphere. It's playful and pretty and delicate but also quite harsh and sinister. I've never heard a record like it.

yea i agree its almost like if early mercury rev made a folk album instead of a rock album.

Boces rules too, i need to throw that cover in the favorite album art thread

Just adding onto this a bit, tracks like this really give me Spirit vibes, in terms of song structure and the playful and delicate melodies punctuated with blasts of noise than Stanshant is describing (and distortion in this case). You guys should check it out.

Really interested in any other music similar to Spirit if anyone knows

There will never be anything close to Spirit. It's a one of a kind !

Luv it 2 bits

I just picked that up today but had to leave it at work because I didn't want to cycle through rush hour with it. It's killing me!

OOOHHHH NOOOO

Sweet foto Ik ! sweet fish tank too

I wish I had a fish tank.

Second favorite AC album after Feels. MPP comes third.

I love how this album shows the musical genius that avey was since the beginning, thus "validating" the noisy experimentation that would follow. There is some noise on Spirit but it's very elegant and not that "wild".

This album is perfect for early fall.

Oh yes! This time of the year is just the right time for Spirit
Listened twice to it the other day, man it just feels so right sitting outdoors looking at the trees and the sky and listening to penny dreadfuls with the clear-sky sun warming you while the cold wind gives you chills. Actually AC's first four albums all fit into this kind of weather and time of the year for me. Maybe even Sung Tongs but not really, it's more wintery.

Also, how many of you guys think of this album as prog rock? I can't be the only one!

I would love to have seen them perform some of the spirit songs at that show in new york in 99. Hell, seeing them perform anything back then would have been incredible.

I'm still hoping they start playing alvin row just as they did chocolate girl...

Probably the most rewarding album I've ever gotten into

Also, how many of you guys think of this album as prog rock? I can't be the only one!

i would think so too.
but centipede hz sounds even more like prog to me.

This album is perfect for early fall. Seems to me about the transition from a kid/teenager leaving home to go study in a big city. You come back during weekends and holidays, go walk in the wood with friends and psychedelic. You realize you are changing. Everything from your childhood is there, but now you gaze through it with a an eye that is distorted by being older, living elsewhere and having responsabilites.

The constant hiss and feedback on the album represent the blur you experience as a young adult trying to re-experience his youth.

Wow where can I start.. I registered just so I could respond to this. About 6 weeks ago I moved to Los Angeles for college from a lovely small town about 3 hours north. I feel stranded on my campus that's about 20 miles north of the center of LA. I'm not allowed to have my car on campus to go home because of the school rules, so I brought my track bike with me.
So yesterday, Sunday, my body woke itself up at 7am despite being hungover and sleep deprived. I kissed a girl for the first time the night before (Not a good thing because I was waiting for someone actually special to come along). I had been lying in bed for a about an hour listening to Alvin Row, Bat You'll fly, Loch Raven, and April and the Phantom on repeat when I decided I needed to go on a bike ride to find myself and my soul.
Put my headphones in, started listening to Feels, followed by Sung Tongs and STGSTV, and rode my bike north in the direction of my home dreaming that I could maybe make the 160 miles by nightfall. I can happily say it was one of the greatest adventures of my life. I started out emotionally distraught, feeling strange emotions I had never felt before. All of a sudden I was under a spell, captivated by magic, and I found myself. My emotions changed, I was laughing out of happiness and nothing felt important anymore. I felt connected to the earth riding through all the different places I hadn't been before alongside the LA mountains.
I didn't make it home though. I made it 30 miles and remembered that I had midterms the next day and I hadn't studied a minute for them.
Nothings gonna stop me this weekend though.

dang man ! that sounds like such a great time. good luck to you! i'm glad that you were able to have that experience and it will forever be linked to this great music.

This whole album reminds me of Spirit quite a bit.
http://youtu.be/WbgsWLMGHas

howso? It sounds groovy. But I don't hear much resemblance to Spirit. I'm curious as to whatcha tink dough!

I think it's the whimsical "primordial forest journey" motif, with the wispy, twinkling vocals and instrumentation that remind of a song off Spirit like La Rapet. The whole Candy Claws album is about a girl and her seal traveling to the Mesozoic Era, so there are some thematic similarities in my opinion. I'm psyched to find more music that is similar.

I've told this story a few times (I guess it was on the old board) but apparently not in this thread yet...

The original download I had for this album DID NOT include Alvin Row for some reason. It ended with Someday I'll Grow to be as Tall as the Giant. I was just starting my path towards AC fandom so I had yet to research any official tracklist. Also, both Feels and Strawberry Jam consisted of 9 tracks so I assumed it was legit.

The inevitable "favorite animal collective songs" thread popped up and I was prepared at that point to make my own. I noticed that at the top of many users list was a song titled "Alvin Row". What was this song? A b-side? Some live song that was never recorded? I thought I had the band's entire discography! How could I have missed this track?! So I googled it and, to my surprise, it was listed as the final track on Spirit. Wait a minute...I have that album! This song is not in the folder! I was listening to this album for nearly a year without realizing it was incomplete! How did I miss this?!

So it was at that point I went out and bought the cd reissue. Owning this also helped me understand and appreciate Danse Manatee (which I initially dismissed as formless noise). So here it was, Alvin Row! Holy shit! This song is almost 13 minutes! Not only have I neglected this track for months and months...but it's 13 MINUTES!!! How could this not be epic?!?

I didn't even bother listening to the album all the way through. I went straight to the end.....and the rest is history. I can't explain in words how I felt on that first listen. You guys/gals already know! I don't need to tell you... I was completely blown away! Hand's down: Noah's greatest drum performance! The lyrics are insane! "ooOOooHhh BaBbbaaABbbYy!" This was one of those moments that affirmed my love for the band. Magic!

"now my singing voice....is gone"

Yeah Alvin Row is amazingly good, i can still remember the first time i heard it, at around midnight, i was completely blown away.

If Animal Collective recorded a song for 13 minutes straight, you know something is up ! Yeah the first time I heard the drop, just ... wonderful. My love for AC was taken to another level that day, for sure

RRUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

If I had the money I would bootleg a vinyl edition of this just to have everyone whistling flow into la rapet on the b-side. I would start a kickstarter for it, but I'm sure there's a ton of legal shit I'd be subject to if I attempted to do this, but c'mon Fat Cat I love you for putting this out on vinyl, but did you not think it through when you knew the tracklisting? sheesh

oh and a locked groove for "My singing voice is gone"

oh and a locked groove for "My singing voice is gone"

THIS

this is gonna be the first album I listen to in full when I get my turntable set up.

a couple days i got a black hoodie with the album cover on the front
best buy ever am i rite

Post a pic for real.
I gotta see it!
Sounds raaad.

its in the wash rn but ill post it l8r
emotuonally attached clothing