Collected Animals

I’m super lukewarm on stride rite tbh. Not sure exactly what the song is supposed to be communicating, and I recognize repeats of so many of deakin’s songwriting and vocal quirks that it feels almost uncanny.

Never thought I'd say this but IIN makes me hear and appreciate the mixing choices on TS. The murky spatiality of TS has this NyQuil fever dream quality whereas IIN is like stepping in and out of a sauna.

First post here after lurking occasionally. I gotta say I really do think this album is on par with their best. I wasn't a big fan of Time Skiffs at all. I liked a lot of it, but it sounded so dull compared to literally anything else they ever did. Despite some of the unified instrumentation and medievalish vibes, it didn't feel like there was a unified psychedelic space that the album was living in. I found Painting With pretty grating overall, but it at least fully absorbed itself in the world it strove to create. That ability to create a fully fleshed out unique sonic land with every album cycle is a huge part of what makes them so special. I'm so happy to find that they pretty much pulled out all the stops for this record.

I liked Soul Capturer as a single, but I was hearing it too much from the lens of a Feels track or something. Hearing it as an intro (and especially followed up by Genies) puts it in an entirely new light. I totally stand with some of the people in this thread who have said it feels like a portal being opened to a new world, warning whoever enters of the dangers that lie within. It maybe doesn't have quite the strangeness or sonic depth of some of their old work with similar instrumentation, but I realize now that it isn't going for the same sense of kaleidoscopic profundity. This is a VIBE record, dripping with 70s analog tones and magical imagery. It also feels centered in escapism, reveling in it through the first half and exploring it's inherent futility in the second.

The first 4 tracks float by like a dream. Genies Open especially does so much for the record. After stepping into the portal opened in the first song, you find yourself dropped into a journey that you've apparently been on already for some time. There is struggle and confusion in this journey, but somehow none of it is overwhelming. You're worn down, but you're determined. Every section of this song was done pretty much perfectly. I was initially put off by the sharp presence of Panda's part in the third section and I still don't love that aspect, but I'm pretty used to it at this point and I don't think it takes away from the song at all.

Eventually, night falls on the paradise found in the last section of Genies and the culture of the local village lights up in bright colors. I wasn't a fan of Broke Zodiac from the boots and far preferred Gem and I, but goddamn this studio version was pulled off perfectly. It's mysterious and full of wonder, perfectly progressing the atmosphere that Genies left off on.
By the time Magicians comes into frame, the people have all gone to bed and the lights have gone out. You're left wandering the empty streets as the loneliness, fatigue, and underlying anxiety begin to intrude on your fantasy world. You begin to think of what you've left behind at home, remembering what you're running from. You refuse to let the anxiety take over your fantasy. You run to the nearest hilltop, reminding yourself that this is your world and you're here to take in the sights. This was my favorite song from the boots, and I feel like there's not much to say about it at this point. It's pulled off absolutely perfectly. The dark and mysterious verses give way to earth-shaking choruses that remind me of Sigur Ros in their () era. The elation that the song eventually builds to is so joyful and affirming, bolstered by some of the most powerful recorded vocals from Avey in the last decade.

You reach the hilltop, and get comfortable. Feeling peaceful and contemplative, you look upwards at the stars. The melancholy starts to set in once again, and this time you surrender yourself to it. Defeat is the ultimate statement of this album and probably this entire era of the band. It's also an exception in that I can actually read the lyrics! It's an examination of the real world that the protagonist (not that there is a literal protagonist to the album, but going along with this narrative I'm constructing) is trying to run from. I agree with those that link a lot of these lyrics to the pandemic, but they can also generally refer to a world in a constant state of transformation and decay. "A little change... just grab something, take hold. The only thing you know. Stay grounded like the spruce." It's unbelievably powerful and relatable. The middle section contains a microcosm of the exotic world that the first half of the album resides in, but the truth is now unavoidable. You haven't escaped, you're merely crawling from the inevitable. This fantasy quickly dissolves again into self reflection once again. I do think the last couple sections of the song reference the state of the band as others have speculated, though I'm only sure of that because of the response that Gem and I provides on the same topic. The conclusion of all the reflection within the song is rather bleak. "Isn't it now? Defeat! Oh no, not now"...repeat. Nothing in life turns out exactly the way you expect. It will tear you down and never let you know when you have something good going. Uncertainty and instability are not temporary obstacles on the way to comfort. they are an integral and perpetual part of the human experience, without which we would have no reason to move forward. Defeat is ultimately a song about weathering the storm. As a generally anxious person, that message speaks to me a lot. It doesn't give me hope, but it does give me a degree of comfort.

I was initially slightly put off by the abrupt transition into Gem and I, but I now see it as one of the most essential parts of the track sequence. It essentially functions as the snap back to reality of the album. You open your eyes, and everything is back to normal. You still have the colors of that world you just left implanted in your mind, and you can't stop dwelling on the profound realizations that the experience left you with. You sit back, crack open a beer, and for once you fully allow yourself to examine where you're life is at with a new pair of eyes. This song references the state of the band a lot more directly, but also notably comes to a much more positive conclusion. There are really no golden years, so why can't they be now? It reminds me of absurdism and how, as a branch of thought, it's essentially the positive/productive answer to nihilism and existentialism. Sure, nothing matters. But instead of wallowing in that, let's make things matter for ourselves regardless. It's the only real defense we have up against such a confounding world.
After clearing your head, you step outside and feel the fresh Autumn air on your skin. The leaves are falling, and it feels like a new day. You take a deep breath and decide that this world is enough. There may be hard days coming and lord knows there have been hard days past, but you're appreciative of the journey for what it is and feel fortunate to be part of it all. Stride Rite is a gorgeous closer to the arch of the album. The cascading harmonies feel so full of life and hope and wonder. I can't ignore how much the timbre of Deak's multitrack vocals remind me of Fleet Foxes. The song as a whole carries a vibe that I don't think any other AnCo songs really do, but it works so perfectly within this album.

The last 2 tracks feel like an epilogue of sorts and I'm not 100% on what they represent to me, but I wouldn't change them or their placement at all and the feelings are changing all the time. Currently I feel like Clubs is a zoom back on the billions of people in the world who are busy living their difficult lives and going through their own personal journeys, many of which have little time for escapism nor existential contemplation. Aside from any personal lore, it's a fun track that I'm glad they kept around even if it's fairly unsubstantial.
King's Walk gives me very rich imagery. It feels like someone at the end of their rope, walking for what feels like ages through sweltering heat. The title says a lot I think. To me this song, following the zoom out on the world the Clubs provides, is a zoom back in on someone who once had power and influence. This is someone who has lived their whole life in the fantasy, who hasn't had any reason to reflect on their relationship with the real world. Now, however, they are lost and afraid. It's the fear and desperation of someone forced to reckon with themselves after all the damage is already done. Following the comfort found in Gem and Stride, I feel like Kings Walk is a lament for those who are doomed to never find that solace, who are forced to begin this journey late in life without a framework for understanding the human condition. All you can do is join hands with your neighbor and hope that through that connection you can find new meaning. I'm not sure of that interpretation at all, but either way it's a wonderful and evocative closer that gives new perspective to the entire journey of the album.

I said a lot about the emotional journey here and not a lot about the music, which is consistently fantastic. I feel like my urge to talk about the album in this way is something I've missed from AnCo for a long time. Ark (and maybe Feels) is probably the only other album of theirs where I feel like making up my own narrative to represent the feelings on display through the tracklist. There's something truly evocative about the world of this album that transcends the relatively (by AnCo standards) minimal and mellow sound palette. I'm just so happy with how it turned out. There are songs from Skiffs that I can imagine being on this album (Passer-by, Dragon Slayer, Prester John, and Royal and Desire specifically), but the more I listen to this the less I care about that. It's a wonderful AnCo album that brings together so much that I love about the band

Yeah totally. I don't know how he does it, but Noah's lyrics are really unique.

One of Avey's hallmark lyric-writing bits is how he blends syllables and creates quasi-homophones for stuff, or just substitutes words in ways that make the descriptions more psychedelic or nonsensical but retaining the "real" part, if you squint. Noah accomplishes a similar thing, but less by substitution and more by omission, if that makes sense. His lyrics are so minimal, and the words and phrases he does use are usually so weird that understanding their meaning requires close reading and thinking about them, even if he's using common words. I've always thought of them as blurry, like you might pick up on the vibe when they pass by you, but other than specific words or phrases that stand out as very concrete, you have to deliberately "mine" them for their meaning

genie's is my new song of the day

waiting for the day when it'll be clubs lol

speaking of genie's, though, that's the only track here that may have benefitted from the more colorful and varied production of Time Skiffs. I do love how it sounds here but it definitely has a muted color palette in comparison to how they played it live on the last tour

Are the Instagram snippets supposed to sound like something? Sounds terrible and like deepfried or something on my end

A 6.2 from pitchfork

augustjsmith wrote:

A 6.2 from pitchfork

yeah lol "sucked up [to indie tastemakers] and we got the shaft [from indie tastemakers] and now we're falling [out of favor with indie tastemakers]"

Stories and Games wrote:

augustjsmith wrote:

A 6.2 from pitchfork

yeah lol "sucked up [to indie tastemakers] and we got the shaft [from indie tastemakers] and now we're falling [out of favor with indie tastemakers]"

I think the sucked up part is less ‘we sucked up to indie tastemakers’ and more ‘we were sucked up by the indie tastemaker hype machine’.

Magicians kind of sounds like a fleshed our Crimson

They also gave PW 3 stars… time skiffs got 4/5

I'm still unsure if I can quite parse the chorus on Gem. Is it like a question/answer thing? With the first two lines commenting on music journalism's lack of foresight to see past what the cultural consensus is feeding them? While also 'changing the name' and circulating through flavour-of-the-month hype machines? I feel like 'flagging the lame' is referring to that too but could also be about the bands tendency to try and break new ground and avoid rehashing old ideas. Not sure!

muark wrote:

I'm still unsure if I can quite parse the chorus on Gem. Is it like a question/answer thing? With the first two lines commenting on music journalism's lack of foresight to see past what the cultural consensus is feeding them? While also 'changing the name' and circulating through flavour-of-the-month hype machines? I feel like 'flagging the lame' is referring to that too but could also be about the bands tendency to try and break new ground and avoid rehashing old ideas. Not sure!

I thought "changing the naaaaame/ (me & them, me & them) was about panda going solo more after AC's success took off and then alternating b/w solo and group stuff to (unrigging the game/going back to back)

also makes me picture panda back-to-back with Avery in an epic, funny way lol

sorry for being annoying and beating this drum but still no interviews for this is WEIRD to me

i'm just hoping they do promo bc i want to hear what they have to say about it and i hope it can boost some interest, bc i think this album is really special

9 days!!