Collected Animals

Wow this thread is from 2017. I apologize for every opinion in here except the daffy duck opinion.Oddsac is def a climax, maybe their first climax of the career. That music exists so uniquely out of common knowledge of AC eras and is such a great blend of ambient/drone and pop music. Stuff like fried camp/vamp and what happened/tantrum barb being on the same thing. They need to play what happened LIVE . THYE PLAYED SCREENS !

I would say FBK is the climax for me. Everything after that has been distinctly less thrilling. Interesting, yes, some amazing music, yes, but it's all felt like they're trying to find their way forwards rather than being driven forwards. They seem happy and they're making some great music still so I'm happy for them. I just feel like I'm past the life-changing era of their music, which will also be a reflection of my age and experiences.

FBK definitely might be the highpoint yeah.. Graze -> WWIWS is better than anything on MPP. Goddamn now that I think about it those two songs are so fucking good, haven’t heard them in ages

agree with FBK as the climax ... what a ten-year arc from Spirit to FBK. the greatest decade of music from any band ever

Amen.

dansemanatee wrote:

tsurimin wrote:

water curses is the climax of AC's discography

totally agree on this

No way, climax is definitely Oddsac. They make their “best” album MPP and while they still had that juice they drop something as darkly psychedelic as their early catalog and as beautiful as MPP. It’s them in their absolute state imo

I agree with this. ODDSAC has everything

Jimmy Mack was their climax

painting with is their best release in the 14 years since mpp

I don't subscribe to this "climax" way of thinking. I've been a fan for almost 20 years and I still get powerful emotional response from their music. I'm just older and have other things I have to think about instead of being high and listening to a burned Sung Tongs cd all the time. Been seeing them live since 09 and my top 3 live AC shows have been 2017, 2019, 2022.

I don't subscribe to this "climax" way of thinking. I've been a fan for almost 20 years and I still get powerful emotional response from their music. I'm just older and have other things I have to think about instead of being high and listening to a burned Sung Tongs cd all the time. Been seeing them live since 09 and my top 3 live AC shows have been 2017, 2019, 2022.

I don’t think the thought of a band’s climax has to be conjoined with the idea the band is lesser now. Every journey has its highpoints along the way. AC will continue to offer highpoints, studio and live gifts, transcendent experiences, Greatness, and all the rest. TS2 will no doubt be another highpoint. Skiffs tours were highpoints, etc. But what is the highest of these high points? I think that’s what we’ve been talking about. That’s what climax means to me at least. The highest mountain peak AC ever reached was ’09 in my opinion, because they had the momentum of ten straight years of climbing higher and higher, leading up to it. And finally, they summited, and it was a summit no band has reached before. I don’t think there should be any disappointment had with where they went post 2010. It’s just the continuation of the same journey. They’ve got new aims, maybe it’s less about peaks and more about stretching out, new terrain. Side projects, solo stuff, a band record every few years. They’re still Great, always will be, and their current era is no less valuable than what came before.

FBK highly overrated imo. beginning of the boring AC period. but i bet i've posted that in this very thread already

My unpopular opinion: While panda bear is an amazing drummer, I believe his true talents are wasted when performing behind a kit. His standing drum/sampler combo was peak, and the PW era really freed him up to do more intense vocals and synth/sampler wizardry.

It’s just the continuation of the same journey. They’ve got new aims, maybe it’s less about peaks and more about stretching out, new terrain. Side projects, solo stuff, a band record every few years. They’re still Great, always will be, and their current era is no less valuable than what came before.

As an addendum, AC branching out allowed for new peaks:

Avey - 2017 - Eucalyptus + Mothlight
Panda Bear - 2014-15 - Greaper Live
Deakin - 2016 - Sleep Cycle

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that's a good one preakness. 07 set up GOATed

I think they will have many more climaxes

Deakin has the best solo album. It's better than Person Pitch

I think they will have many more climaxes

so I use my mind and I use my hand...

Summing the Wretch into We Go Back would be a god tier live transition and it’s a tragedy that it will probably never happen

spirit is practically unlistenable


*waits for castration"

revisiting this take from me some 7 years ago. think the remaster clears up the mix in a much more satisfying way, and I do really appreciate how cohesive this record is from a sonic perspective. Panda drumming, similar to the skiffs era, really elevates everything too.

i really hope avey puts down the bass after the new record comes out. i love the idea of AC with bass in theory, but this is the first time that a member's lack of technical musical proficiency has truly felt like a problem in the history of the band. sometimes the problem is that his playing is technically sloppy (prester john takes a massive hit from this, that bass part would be great if it wasn't played so timidly), but more often the issue is just that he's being adventurous instead of supportive and occasionally just Playing The Wrong Notes in the process. it was fine before for him to intuitively feel his way towards what feels good on a guitar or keyboard, but the bass just isn't that sort of instrument. it's so much easier to go wrong, and that's especially true when you're playing the most stylistically conventional pop rock music of your career. the middle section of defeat is maybe the best/worst example of this; it worries me that none of the other members or producers ever bothered to say "hey dave are you sure about that first note you're playing after the keyboard walkdown," because it's just so blatantly sour, and it sucks that it was immortalized in the studio recording. there's also the issue of his tone being way too trebly and plinky on time skiffs—i can't even say "well even if he's not a great bassist it's at least cool that there's such a strong low end presence" because it sounds like he's playing with a freaking dollar coin on at least half those songs. hopefully this isn't the case on the new album, the bass sounds fine sonically on defeat i think, but "animal collective with bass" is a still an altogether failed schtick, and i hope it turns out to be a relatively brief one

I agree with half of this, I do think that Avey's tone on studio Prester and other Skiffs songs is kinda fucked, but I like what he's playing on Defeat. It's definitely the bass playing of someone who is inexperienced on the instrument, but nothing feels out of place to me.

avey has made so many basslines for the band over the years n P John/middle defeat is a classic avey bassline. i agree hes not the best technically but y u gotta say Wrong Note my BRo. that first note after the keyboard line in defeat is so fkn good if you relax ur anal sphincter and Trust This Man!

i feel like most all the pre-skiffs synth bass lines excepting stgstv have been dead simple, primarily supportive "play the root note in a fun rhythm with occasional melodic flourishes" stuff, no? idk, 2020s animal collective doesn't have the diy vibe or the aesthetic uniqueness that made spirit's agile bass lines work i think

edit: to give a cut and dry example of the amateurishness really not working, dave's bass has audible intonation issues on studio car keys when he goes up high on the A string for "one stuck up in a bush". i really feel like marta salogni must've been given a strict "no pitch correction + no quantizing" direction from the band in an effort to make the record feel more live, bc there's no way that wouldn't have been quick-fixed otherwise

I’ve never noticed any sour notes on time skiffs per se but I’m honestly all for a little amateurism, I feel like it’s little quirks that like that that ground it a bit. It’s their most conventional album but it’s still free flowing and there’s little honest moments like that.

I definitely don’t see him playing bass in the post skiffs/skiffs 2 era though. Will be interesting to see what instruments they’ll use in the new era though. I like the instrumental palette of this current era, felt really creative; you had conventional stuff like the kit and the bass but also stuff like the hurdy gurdy and a lot of weird textures.

I like avey’s bass playing because it’s cool

yes i do like the bass on skiffs/skiffs 2 songs.

I do think that the bass line in the intro/verses of Gem and I is super good and fun. I like the Cherokee bass parts quite a bit too.

ac hasnt been good since tlop

AC have always had an element of amateurish charm. The joy and beauty is in the shameless, open hearted, pure creativity.

Avey’s bass lines are rad.

I definitely get why you'd describe his bass playing as inexperienced or whatever but I don't really think thats it and I don't hear any of this wrong note stuff. The way he's playing is definitely not how you're "supposed to" play the bass but he's also not really doing the kind of classic "guitar player is stuck playing bass" thing that happens a lot in more traditional rock bands. I feel like his basslines are just weird and unnatural, not in a bad way but more like I would never think of this and there is an interview with Noah where he kind of says the same. Noah's drumming is actually a good comparison. People love his drumming but it's super weird and idiosyncratic, I can't really imagine him sitting in on drums for any other band you know.

I guess I don't really know how to pay attention to this stuff cos it all sounds good to me !

There should've been more, "pissing noises" on Feels

Summertime Clothes is easily the worst song on MPP

Summertime Clothes is easily the worst song on MPP

weird, i think it's easily the best

^^^ It's still a good song but yeah

I think it’s daily routine. Still an amazing song but I feel like even lion in a coma does more for me than that one.

Wow fucking hell. Daily Routine is probably the go-to for me after...FOURTEEN YEARS.

gonna do tiers for MPP

S
Brothersport
Taste
Guys Eyes

A
In the Flowers
No More Runnin
Also Frightened
Daily Routine
Bluish

B
My Girls
Lion in a Coma
Summertime Clothes

C
--

D
--

Truly not even a mid song on the record... I agree Summertime Clothes is the least of them, however

Agree with that except I might put My Girls and Lion in tier A, maybe put Flowers in tier B with Summertime. Agreed 100% on the top 3, studio Guys Eyes in particular is a real masterpiece I think. That vocal arrangement just sends me to another world. When I imagine the perfect, ideal crystalization of MPP era AC that exists in my head, I'm usually just thinking of Guys Eyes.

Summertime Clothes is easily the worst song on MPP

unreasonable take when in the flowers is right there man

Hellomark wrote:

Summertime Clothes is easily the worst song on MPP

weird, i think it's easily the best

First AC song I ever heard, I fell in love immediately

No More Runnin is the worst imo