Collected Animals

my first listen of this one remains my favorite. midnight, semi-fazed and sitting in the dark watching the visuals with my headphones on...if you commit to the full experience of this visual album, you won't come away unsatisfied

Yeh, sounds perfect.

My first listen was also with the film. Had to be!

Wasn’t baked though unfortunately.


Jake and Me is just absolutely beauty.

still waiting patiently for a 4k version

still waiting patiently for a 4k version

i know a 4k blu ray release will never happen but i really want a 4k blu ray release to happen

Because it's set to images of coral I had always tried to listen to this on hot, sunny days when the big blue sea springs to mind. But actually, I think this album is much better suited to gloomy, rainy days. When everything is dull and grey. This album is perfect in that setting for me. Its stark textures and slightly unsettling dissonance hit different.

Where AC's usual psychedelic sounds evoke a whole spectrum of colour, this is a dull grey blue. Not the sparkling surface of the ocean in the end, but the murky depths lying beneath. A kind of desolate, primordial soup.

It's a bloody great album.

yeah I've always felt this album was super melancholy. listening to it feels kind of like looking out over a vast ruined kingdom, both achingly beautiful and profoundly sad. I guess it's a fitting sentiment given that the world's coral reefs are being destroyed by climate change, the album definitely seems to be mourning that loss

yeh agree. in that way the footage doesn't really capture the same feeling. it shows the coral in all their strange beauty but doesn't clearly relay any kind of narrative about their destruction

the cassette is my favorite live album that they've released

the cassette is my favorite live album that they've released

good tip. think i only gave it a cursory listen. will dive in

I got the live cassette today, was really surprised how good it sounds! Avey's vocals are really good, energised in a lot of places where the album is more subdued. Some transitions are stretched out and different too. Who else has heard it?

How often do people go back to this one?

I think there is something about it that I can never quite get a hold of and for that reason I go back to it quite often. Like I never really know it and therefore it maintains a level of mystery that brings me back.

Not that often but I know what you mean, I like that it has that mystique. To me this is a really good album to fall asleep to (in a good way).

I like the ambient/droney quality that it has and I listen to it quite often. It doesn't really ask for you too much of your attention, it just kind of fills the room and you can tune in and out as desired.

May be one of my favorite AC releases.

I like the sound of it but never specifically listened to it all the way through. It's a good way to create a space.

First two thirds are perfect but totally runs out of steam after jake and me

I like the last third as much as the rest of tangerine reef, but the closer is one of the worst songs they've ever done. The only thing that I like about it is the title cause it might truly be the worst of all. I usually don't listen to it, even if the sound just suddenly cuts off after palythoa (also kind of fitting since most coral reefs all over the globe will be fucked beyond repair soon). Maybe someday I'll do an edited version that ends in a more satisfying manner.

okay just had a skim thru the tracklist, last third not that bad.
It's funny that the song called "coral by numbers" is coincidentally the same moment the songs start to feel less inspired. but it ain't that bad. coral realization is awesome.

Agreed the problem is the closer and for me Hip Sponge is essentially the same song with the same problem i.e. avey's chanting and banging on something and making no impact on the instrumental. which is a shame in both cases because the instrumental is beautiful.

Yeah, I'm with you regarding everything you said. Hip sponge is only slightly less annoying than the closer.

Tangerine Reef may be their biggest grower, along with Time Skiffs. It demands patience, in part because of the live-like production, but it has a lot of gems. My personal favs are Palythoa (imo, their best song that had been released since Honeycomb), Buxom, Inspector Gadget, Lundsten Coral and Best of Times (Worst of All).

I don't agree on Best of times being one of their worst songs. It has this same kind of "false abstraction" quality as Kindle Song. At first, you think there's almost no melody, but with repeated listens, your brain begins to gather all the pieces. That's what I love about these two songs.

honestly tangerine reef is maybe my most returned to album at the moment, a real sleeper that repeated listens tease out more details to love, buxom into coral understanding is top tier AC for me...
I love that they release their 'main' studio albums and have these kind of projects that get swept up as side projects but for the real fans it's like the link back to their early days, the experimental side never left them it now just gets sidelined as a 'non-major' project... like if danse was released now it wouldn't be seen as a 'core' AC album because it's too out there

I should really give it more time, you convinced me, friend.

I should really give it more time, you convinced me, friend.

let me know how it goes, i would say, imagine listening to it in the way you would an early boot, it will open up i am sure

I just gave it a listen on my way home from work, due to this thread, and it's a truly amazing. The synths are out of this world and everything feels alive and breathing. It should definitely end with palythoa though. The closer always leaves such a bad taste in my mouth.

really like the song w the repeated 'i got my eyes on the prize, the time is now, now is time', gets me hyped

yeah I'm not too huge a fan of the album (though I do feel like that's mainly because I haven't quite wrapped my head around it, not because it's bad) but I do actually like that last track quite a bit lol

Airpipe and Jake and Me is a really great back to back. Love the dark and mysterious lounge singer vibe of Jake and Me, feel like you can hear the same vibe in the first part of Magicians.

Airpipe and Jake and Me is a really great back to back. Love the dark and mysterious lounge singer vibe of Jake and Me, feel like you can hear the same vibe in the first part of Magicians.

I was just thinking today that Hair Cutter could motph into the first part of Defeat and I’d barely notice.

By far their weakest studio album, but I have enjoyed it from time to time, including once when I had vaped too much and needed something to calm me down

Oh wait I forgot Crestone existed lol, that one might take the bottom spot, and I haven't even listened to The Inspection yet

I don't really think of it as having specific songs or tracks that I like. I think of it as being this single, continuous thing that starts and finishes. Kind of like a movie. Most of us wouldn't just skip to the scenes we like, we would watch the whole thing and take the ride.

By far their weakest studio album, but I have enjoyed it from time to time, including once when I had vaped too much and needed something to calm me down

Oh wait I forgot Crestone existed lol, that one might take the bottom spot, and I haven't even listened to The Inspection yet

Technically a studio album, yes. But it was conceived of as a live album and was meant to accompany visuals provided by Coral Morphologic. Might be why you are considering it "weak."

Crestone was also a soundtrack to a movie.

I feel the same way.

I never listen to isolated tracks. Only ever the whole thing. It’s probably their most ‘has to work as one unit’ album actually.

Glad me posting in this thread has encouraged some people to revisit it. Whether it changed their opinion or not!

captainlunatic wrote:

By far their weakest studio album, but I have enjoyed it from time to time, including once when I had vaped too much and needed something to calm me down

Oh wait I forgot Crestone existed lol, that one might take the bottom spot, and I haven't even listened to The Inspection yet

Technically a studio album, yes. But it was conceived of as a live album and was meant to accompany visuals provided by Coral Morphologic. Might be why you are considering it "weak."

Crestone was also a soundtrack to a movie.

Why did they release it on vinyl without the visuals though? They didn't even do a blu-ray. And it was still recorded in a studio wasn't it? It's arguably more of a studio album than Campfire Songs

Purple Rain was the soundtrack to a movie and it's widely considered the best Prince album

I think it was recorded live in the studio. So benefits of studio quality sound but actually performed live/one take type deal I believe.

There's an interview somewhere where they said they recorded it live at one of the shows but there were too many people talking and the recording was unusable so they went into the studio and did the whole thing in one take.

I think they said they felt like the music was strong enough to stand on it's own so they put it out as it's own thing. They didn't include a blu-ray but the visuals are one their website.

https://tangerinereef.myanimalhome.net/

Edit: Here's the interview https://www.billboard.com/music/rock/an ... f-8470645/

I file it with oddsac as a real album but existing separately from the main canon of albums. An OST sort of but not as much an OST as crestone or the inspection (also haven't listened to the inspection sorry)
Maybe it's weak compared to sung tongs or whatever but it's not a fair comparison. TR is a concept piece, front-to-back experiential listen and the execution is, for the most part, sublime.

Glad TR is getting love!

Definitely like some of the songs but its got kind of a cold palette that I'm just not in the zone for most of the time. Also feel like I should finally see it with the visuals

By far their weakest studio album, but I have enjoyed it from time to time, including once when I had vaped too much and needed something to calm me down

Oh wait I forgot Crestone existed lol, that one might take the bottom spot, and I haven't even listened to The Inspection yet

My ranking of the three recent oddities:
1. Crestone (setting aside the few cringy hipster spoken word moments)
2. Tangerine Reef
3. (diiiiiistant third) The Inspection

Definitely like some of the songs but its got kind of a cold palette that I'm just not in the zone for most of the time. Also feel like I should finally see it with the visuals

Visuals are essential at least once. You'll never forget the coral that eats/fucks itself

i love crestone and think it's really sublime stuff, awesome textures and a great flow

I love Tangerine Reef enough to own it physically. That does encourage the front to back listen that people seem to prefer but I think songs like Hair Cutter, Jake and Me and especially Hip Sponge shine enough on their own to be enjoyed as singles. Hip Sponge actually would make for a wonderful warm balm as a follow up listen to Defeat.

Don’t get the two scores but I haven’t seen either movie so I can’t fairly judge them from my isolated listens

I think Buxom hits a very similar spot to early Midnight Special, just a really good emotional delivery from avey. I think that’s where the album shines for me, as dark sadder synth tracks, I think the lack of definite rhythmic elements is those tracks is fantastic, as it creates a unique vibe that feels like it could be seen as a throughline to something like defeat. Hair Cutter, Buffalo Tomato, Jake and Me all fit in my head as one cohesive style.

really everything up until Coral By The Numbers I genuinely love and rate really high. Afterwards it loses some focus, at least to my ears. something like Airpipe works as a good contrast to the dreamier tracks, almost has this snarling guitar-y sounding part throughout that brings a great edge to the album. But some of the later tracks I just never enjoyed very much and sounded a little too busy to also have those reverbed vox throughout most of them.