Collected Animals

dio wrote:

When you say stuff like "metallic clangy stuff", "wind and string samples", "kitchen-sink-but-still-restrained", "junkyard music"... that sounds a hell of a lot like Music Box ethos. You were there too dio. I wonder if they have deliberately tried to retain the feel of those shows in the eventual studio incarnation of the era.

i wasn't there but going off of the idea that music box is the originator of the era i've been saving that boot for the last thing i listen to before i fly with the freebird. working through the live shit backwards, 2021, 2019, Music Box. Been a good run.

the post Peter Gabriel moody ballad of Avey's past like No More Run-in and On a Highway? that guy grew up and became the Don Quixote sad cowboy from the cover of Beach Boys Surfs Up singing in Passer-By. Cuz of how all their music is just Beach Boys.

Passer-By might be their freakiest song since #1

The go-for-the-throat beauty of Cherokee synths smack of something even a little... dare I say... Spirit-y?? hmmm

A lot of the twinkly synths on this album are very Spirit-y to me

Deakin's finest moment on album are WGB harmonies. And this song is incredible.

I found ideal listening situation, feels better not on head phone for now. Some of the dustiness I thought was vinyl rip is actually there but in a good way. There's a woody-ness to this that CHZ or nothing since MPP and Feels have had. Cant tell how much.

Its woody, clangy, chimey MPP/Feels baby. Chz's sexy older....dad?

....

If this is Music Box informed tho than Skiffs 2 needs to also be and not feel redundant and I think that's what I was trying 2 say earlier.

DDD is really good but I'm also not even ready 2 receive its sonic blessing in so many ways.

my ONLY complaint of skiffs is no Broke Zodiac YET

Royal's instrumentation surprises are esp Music Box af.

Well damn this album is a little tastier than I even imagined. Perhaps a little too tasty

DS->CK joins ranks of insane Avey-Bear duo co-op openers like Leaf->Rabbit and My Flowers. They've never done one like it, its filthy

too tasty?!

what are the lyrics for passerby's ending? cannot wait to sing along with avey and panda for their parts

its honestly like some kind of tasty place

what are the lyrics for passerby's ending? cannot wait to sing along with avey and panda for their parts

I think its just "thank you passerby" over and over

coral lord wrote:

what are the lyrics for passerby's ending? cannot wait to sing along with avey and panda for their parts

I think its just "thank you passerby" over and over

i do not but we can sing that together if u would like

they put all the jammiest jams surrounding all the singles. Good for them. There's a weird, surprisingly jammy/transition-y but single-ridden center

Dunno if anyone has made this connection yet, but is the intro to Passerby a reference to the ending of April and the Phantom? The weird panning clink clink is so similar that it'd be hard to convince me it wasn't done on purpose

^No on has gotten back to me re the ending of R&D being a warped In the Flowers sample

Aw fuck now SWE is the Floridada of Time Skiffs to me

^No on has gotten back to me re the ending of R&D being a warped In the Flowers sample

Aw fuck now SWE is the Floridada of Time Skiffs to me

I know what you mean. Prestor John relieves the tension after Car Keys and Walker segues into Cherokee. SWE sticks out on each listen as a separate part of the album.

I'd be so jazzed on the middle rn if SWE was new, but it already settled in just the past 2 week, oh well.

It and Cherokee I think re the dual pillars holding this thing up, but its wildly solid. Its just the intro and the 2nd half are the much more new and interesting parts of it. I assume it will all settle soon

"The stoop that you love/ is fiending-for meaning" is jarring tbh cuz I think we all thought it was "If you can do the love/ you'll he-eeaal me" or recently I heard "If you can chew the love/ you'll feed me" which is weird but honestly makes sense.

But um actually I hear it now and in the context of a travelouge song honestly works

pretty fucking awesome. A lil rave in the middle of a jam album

I only listened to SWE maybe 5 times. And only twice in sequence with PJ and Walker. Tried to stop myself from the above.

I'm sure in time it'll all settle and feel like a unified whole.

^No on has gotten back to me re the ending of R&D being a warped In the Flowers sample

Aw fuck now SWE is the Floridada of Time Skiffs to me

Heard many MPP tinges....some sounding pretty much the same.

I'd be so jazzed on the middle rn if SWE was new, but it already settled in just the past 2 week, oh well.

It and Cherokee I think re the dual pillars holding this thing up, but its wildly solid. Its just the intro and the 2nd half are the much more new and interesting parts of it. I assume it will all settle soon

Yeah I get that feeling too. that's why I'm holding off listening to to the rest of the songs again til my vinyl listen. Just been overplaying the shit out of WGB but it has not lost any of its luster.
I think it might be the most AC song yet, incorporating elements of literally all their albums into one little celebration. Such a smiley song, in such a triumphant and spooky way. Like, "Yeah we're Animal Collective, were best fuckin friends who create unimaginable music on the same wavelength, WE GO FUCKIN BACK". idk. I really really love it. Just so succinct, clever, perfect.

Also love the stoop lyric. Just brings me back to days, sitting on my brick stoop on a hot summer afternoon, watching the sun start to set and enjoying and ice cream. Also I think of Sesame Street. Just an awesome lyric.

man am I excited to hear this. thanks and keep posting everyone

agree about We Go Back. it's absolutely luminous

We Go Back is so mischievous. I keep imagining Aphex Twin grin but not as menacing. Like the quiet kid in the corner who is actually a blast to hang out with

Best song: probably Strung With Everything. It felt so refreshing the first time I heard it and still is. It feels like it exists separate from the other tracks on the album. None can match its energy.

Weakest song: Passerby. It's boring and only Panda's part at the end saves it from being too dull.

Biggest surprise: We Go Back. I didn't understand the purpose of the autotune from the boots but it works really well here. That horn-synth sound is really cool as well. All the vocal back and forths are wonderful. Not into the end of the song however.

Hot takes: Panda quietly steals the show. His drumming really helps to ground these songs. Been seeing a lot of hate for the Panda songs here which is a shame. Car Keys is absolutely a top-tier track and Walker, though simple, is a fun track. Definitely better than Passerby and Prester John (which to be fair was half Panda's song).
Prester John continues to do absolutely nothing for me. It was an odd choice for the first single and still feels like a dud next to all the other songs on the album. Wish they had replaced it with Kings or Gem & I.

hoping for that 320 drop soon. definitely thursday but hoping something transpires tomorrow or wednesday

It’s funny that when Strung dropped everybody was saying that it was the single that tied it together for them or made them understood how the album would flow because now that we have the full thing it really seems like the odd one out. Every other track has a supernatural spookiness to it, either right up front or hidden just behind the lead melody. Some of the sounds on Strung almost meet this theme, like the ghosts on the album have come out to play, ringing bells and making merriment, but something still feels disconnected. These songs speak to me about the otherworldliness of our regular lives… and Strung speaks to that theme lyrically but the sounds don’t make me feel that way. Maybe this is more of an album sequencing issue — the song is fantastic but, at this point for me, it doesn’t seem to meld with the other tracks quite so easily as—say—Passer-By, WGB and Slayer clearly fit on the same album

speaking mostly to the bulk of the song, intro and that slide guitar definitely gel with the rest

hoping for that 320 drop soon. definitely thursday but hoping something transpires tomorrow or wednesday

Agreed. So close now!

wouldn't it be great if domino just released the HQ preorder download early. I keep refreshing my order page for no reason

It’s funny that when Strung dropped everybody was saying that it was the single that tied it together for them or made them understood how the album would flow because now that we have the full thing it really seems like the odd one out. Every other track has a supernatural spookiness to it, either right up front or hidden just behind the lead melody. Some of the sounds on Strung almost meet this theme, like the ghosts on the album have come out to play, ringing bells and making merriment, but something still feels disconnected. These songs speak to me about the otherworldliness of our regular lives… and Strung speaks to that theme lyrically but the sounds don’t make me feel that way. Maybe this is more of an album sequencing issue — the song is fantastic but, at this point for me, it doesn’t seem to meld with the other tracks quite so easily as—say—Passer-By, WGB and Slayer clearly fit on the same album

speaking mostly to the bulk of the song, intro and that slide guitar definitely gel with the rest

agree with everything here. It's got a different energy from the rest of the songs but I think it works in its favor somehow. It just appears suddenly midway through the album and absolutely floors you, and then boom it's back to the other songs that meld better together. You can't really help but go back and listen to it again and again.

I've been skipping the singles, overplayed em already.

Edit::
I think I will have to stop listening to this version. I don't want to get too familiar before friday.

goodnight and wish me luck!!

Jam wrote:

It’s funny that when Strung dropped everybody was saying that it was the single that tied it together for them or made them understood how the album would flow because now that we have the full thing it really seems like the odd one out. Every other track has a supernatural spookiness to it, either right up front or hidden just behind the lead melody. Some of the sounds on Strung almost meet this theme, like the ghosts on the album have come out to play, ringing bells and making merriment, but something still feels disconnected. These songs speak to me about the otherworldliness of our regular lives… and Strung speaks to that theme lyrically but the sounds don’t make me feel that way. Maybe this is more of an album sequencing issue — the song is fantastic but, at this point for me, it doesn’t seem to meld with the other tracks quite so easily as—say—Passer-By, WGB and Slayer clearly fit on the same album

speaking mostly to the bulk of the song, intro and that slide guitar definitely gel with the rest

agree with everything here. It's got a different energy from the rest of the songs but I think it works in its favor somehow. It just appears suddenly midway through the album and absolutely floors you, and then boom it's back to the other songs that meld better together. You can't really help but go back and listen to it again and again.

This is it right there. It's out of place, but I think it's because the rest of the songs kinda ride on this spooky tension, this misanthropic feeling that the world around you is basically a fun house and most of the people are egotistical carnies. The other songs kinda cower in that fact, in a quiet meditation, but Strung is like laughing in the face of it all. Walker to me sorta almost slips back into the quietness, but definitely a quiet triumph. And then Cherokee slinks back into the spooky ...

Every time I hear the westminster clock tower bells at the turn of the hour from my bedroom, my head just fills it in with We Go Back Vocals and Drums... Also, Cherokee has always given me Angelo Badalamenti Twin Peaks vibes, with the drums, bass and keys, especially the 2019 live version where Avey does those really sluethy whispery delivery of the lines "dressed down just like me... Really it was he." The verses of the song feel like it could soundtrack a detective trying to solve a case scenerio. I finally get why they changed the chorus though and took out the high auto tune now that I actually understand the themes of the song being a sort of long car trip. Avey now sings it in a very tired almost flat voice, which kind of emulates the restlessness of being in a car for a long time. It works great towards the theme as I understand it now.

Avey likes to make songs that use long trips as a sort of theme in some way, huh? On a Highway, Moonjock, Cherokee. Just noticing this.

Beautifully put! Like I said, I think it’s ultimately a sequencing thing for me that I’ll probably get over soon. I actually really like how the Prester outro plus the Strung intro lull you into one of in not the quietest and most meditative section of the album before hitting you with the most brazenly explosive section of the album. That works really well.

Can someone pleaseeee hook me up with the goods? I’m desperate

Also, Cherokee has always given me Angelo Badalamenti Twin Peaks vibes, with the drums, bass and keys.

Beat me to it! Held out from the TP comparison on my Strung tirade but it’s present in the themes of the album but obviously mostly on Cherokee. My fav show n my fav band, fills up my heart!

Sputnik Monroe wrote:

Also, Cherokee has always given me Angelo Badalamenti Twin Peaks vibes, with the drums, bass and keys.

Beat me to it! Held out from the TP comparison on my Strung tirade but it’s present in the themes of the album but obviously mostly on Cherokee. My fav show n my fav band, fills up my heart!

Yup, I felt that when I heard the OG version in 2019. The song starts off like Lynch's iconic night driving scenes.

Sputnik Monroe wrote:

Also, Cherokee has always given me Angelo Badalamenti Twin Peaks vibes, with the drums, bass and keys.

Beat me to it! Held out from the TP comparison on my Strung tirade but it’s present in the themes of the album but obviously mostly on Cherokee. My fav show n my fav band, fills up my heart!

Glad someone else is hearing it! When I saw them at Desert Daze, right afterwards I was thinking of how to describe their new stuff, and Twin Peaks was something that kept coming back. It just had this something in the woods waiting to be discovered that had deep serious themes, but was also playfully jazzy, especially Cherokee. When I hear the high hat and the keys it makes me think of Audreys Dance theme. I think a lot of the sounds and just even the production of this album conjure up varioous 90's influences.

cherokee outro is truly gorgeous woahhhhh

ya, a standout moment on the record for me... just stunning

Insane to say already but... This is my favourite AC album of all time. Every single track hits. So much emotion. FAVOURITE EVER!!!

car keys is sick

I really wish i hadnt heard the singles…. all 3 of them make a lot more sense in context. im like “desensitized” to prester john and i wish i wasnt

Alright. I said I was gonna abstain on Passerby til HQ but those wooden keys sucked me back in to hearing it just one more time:

I welled up a bit. Good God Friday cannot come soon enough. I feel like these little tastes are just gonna make the "full experience" the one where it absolutely unlocks.
I mean, I didn't have anywhere near the feelings I did after listening to Sung Tongs, MPP, Feels etc... the first time. Only after a handful or so did they really open up to me in such a way-- and I do wanna point out that this includes everything I've heard by these guys so far: Tangerine Reef, Slasher Flicks, Greaper, CHz, PW etc...-- I love it all, and it made me giddy hearing it at first, and then the emotion and awe hit later. Emotion and awe already hitting on just these early listens.
Walker and Strung single handedly getting me through winter break with no social contact? I can only imagine when my vinyl comes, I get high with my brother after a long day of work/school, and we bask in a complicated array of lighting amidst an infinitely more complex array of sounds-- so excited for this release. Worth the wait and more, and love you guys for tiding me over as well-- I think I use this app as much as my gps and I deliver flowers for work, hell maybe almost as much as I use em-dashes in my writing. so I'm glad I moved beyond lurking. And so excited to further board the Skiffs 2.0 train.