Collected Animals

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:

Spoiler: show

The song finally hits, and man what a fucking brick. That is easily the saddest, most isolating AC song. like, keep it up with the misanthropy boys. Lonely Avey is so powerful. But yet, it's not all bad-- the romanticism, the yearning, the idea-- all exist. It's just hard to accept a smile as the only key to another's experience. Like the Passerbys that Avey is describing are the few key smiles in this sea of desperation and worry. The huge towering monuments in a blurry desert of people just kind enough to notice a stranger-- makes you think of all the walking epics and tales in some regard, without anywhere near enough time or conditions to read into all of their stories.

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.

beautiful post, wilandhugs

sounds an awful lot like “aaayuh aaaayuh”

there’s no lyrics for that part on the official lyrics… which i happen to possess via a secret source

will maybe share them in the lyrics forum friday if nobody else has

I finally listened to it!

Holy flaming testicles of a bison. This is god tier.

Went down to a beautiful spot by a lake to have my first listen. Blown away on all accounts. It was really fucking special.

I was worried I had built it up too much in my head but that first listen was utter bliss.

Every song retains so much of what made it great live yet all the little changes and additions elevate them to a new level. There was literally not a single moment that I had any hint of demoitis or anything. Even the Car Keys outro was different but immediately gripping and beautiful.

Slayer sounds EXACTLY as I hoped it would. Perfectly captured with some awesome little additions (the fucking tiny Avey shouts at the start of each chorus - gahh!!).

Car Keys was magnificent. Panda kept some of that nasal snarly thing in his vocals while also making them sound fucking incredible. New outro is stunning.

PJ, SWE and Walker kicked me in the pink bits as always. Fantastic stretch of the album. Only about the 6th time I’ve listened to SWE and that song just gets more and more epic.

Cherokee was a massive highlight. They executed it perfectly. I was never totally sold on a live version so this is exactly what I needed. The climax is truly incredible. Also, cool moment: as the climax started to build I suddenly noticed a massive bee hive right next to me in a tree. I watched the bees with a massive dumb grin on my face as the song built and built in a swirling mass of euphoria. The outro is gorgeous and we should all be gushing over it way more.

Passerby was probably my least favourite live tune and has now risen to live among the gods. Such an intense mood in this one. Feels like the emotional crux of the album. I love the ways they filled out the arrangement here. Adding lots of colour and also increasing the impact of the song emotionally.

We Go Back is fucking joyous! Especially coming right after Passer. They totally nailed the insane vocal layers and whimsical melodic confetti. An absolute wonder, classic AC yet absolutely Skiffsy.

Royal and Desire. You had all built this one up to epic levels and it absolutely delivered. Wonderful and deeply affecting. So much beauty in this song. Like many, even having read it a bunch of times, those harmonies halfway through took me totally by surprise and had my jaw dropped. More massive stupid grinning. Combined with some raining on my face

Skiffs sounds so fucking good. Every track is a wonder. Glad I went down to the lake because this album certainly suits that environment for me. Spacious and sparkling yet full of details to discover. Ebbing and flowing beautifully. Where something like MPP felt more deep sea this really is like floating across the surface.

Also totally see the kitchen sink Music Box thing that dio alluded to. This genuinely feels like the final form of those germinating seeds. So many random percussive sounds in particular. Looking forward to properly discovering them all.

This album means a lot to me. It’s definitely the record/era that has had the biggest impact on me since MPP. So many of the ideas, themes etc are a hard relate for me. And sonically, this first listen has already shown me that the boys have framed it all in a brilliant, glistening package of sonic wonder. Can’t fucking wait to play this another hundred times.

I wrote avey a long and very not formatted letter of appreciation to his insta and I am afraid of his response already

The only two songs I don’t really care for are Walker and WGB

Brilliant:
1. R&D (jfc)
2. DS
3. CK
4. Cherokee
Good
5. Passer-By
6. SWE
7. PJ
Meh
8. WGB
9. Walker

This album exceeded my expectations in many ways. It’s still not top tier AC but it’s getting pretty damn close and I’m absolutely jubilant about their return to form.

Jam wrote:

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.

omg this.

Yeahhhh

This is my favorite album from them. I swear I'm not just infatuated and being called by early overhype? I've been hearing through the grapevine about Defeat and the other stuff but this is just so perfectly personally perfect I can't lol

The sound design of this album is fucking immense and this only gathered from me basically squinting at the full picture. When i get the full picture will my face melt covenant style?

We Go Back just dropped officially.

WTF IT DID. gonna hold out until Thursday night at this point. Nice for some people I'm sure though!

we go back is sweet, but why is that the final single? lol

PJ and Walker should have been the only singles.

why wasnt cherokee a single?? that shits like fireworks or banshee beat

BABES READ MY MIND

also I think it makes 100% sense as a single. it certainly is the most 'concise' song imo. and strung is akin to fwx imo on this one. Cherokee I figured was gonna have the banshee beat/FRG/Amanita/visiting friends aura and not be a single tbh

they literally chose the weakest songs to be the singles lmao.

they literally chose the weakest songs to be the singles lmao.

Now now that's just not true, Strung With Everything is amazing and Walker needs to be appreciated more

I think Prester John is fine too, it needs more re-visitation in album context

the video is pretty cool tbh. they all have fun little cameos too

We Go Back is definitely going to be the Lion in a Coma of Time Skiffs for me.

Oh shit whattt. Well hearing it in full quality helps me like it way more. Pretty excited to get my hands on the CD now

Very cool video! Always weirds me out when I see AC music videos this high-quality lmao. Love that little Floridada nod. Wonder if there are other easter eggs I missed.

Watched with the sound off. Of course.

sounds an awful lot like “aaayuh aaaayuh”

there’s no lyrics for that part on the official lyrics… which i happen to possess via a secret source

will maybe share them in the lyrics forum friday if nobody else has

sounds like he's saying "island" because he's an island boy

video is awesome lol.
Listened eagerly but now definitely gonna wait for the full HQ drop on friday. It'll be so sweet

The end, so good

You are all crazy, We Go Back is an instant classic — another Halloweener from Avey

We Go Back is definitely going to be the Lion in a Coma of Time Skiffs for me.

It's the Lion and allllmost a Golden Gal.

I love WGB, one quick banger to go out on before the Big Epic closer

Cherokee---> WGB is Lyncian af, esp the transitions

Holy crap, we go back turned out great!
Best AC video ever? I think so!

Speaking as one who has abstained from the freebird, I did not need another single at this time. I've already listened to PJ, SWE, and Walker dozens of times in their album intended order. Offering up another appetizer at this point almost feels insulting. I'm a hungry boi, I want the full meal.

[Edit] But just looking at the video, I am definitely intrigued. [Edit]

YouTube played this survey ad before the video and the first notes had me so confused

Speaking as one who has abstained from the freebird, I did not need another single at this time. I've already listened to PJ, SWE, and Walker dozens of times in their album intended order. Offering up another appetizer at this point almost feels insulting. I'm a hungry boi, I want the full meal.

50ish hours, well live. If I had known it would drop today I might have held off on vinyl rip but I'm good with my decision now. No headphones at work and no headphones listening in general. Sounds good in my car and Bluetooth speaker (mid quality by design)

WGB is Feels's and PW's lil baby.

I expect the good quality bird to show up sometime today or tomorrow too. There's always the NZ bird that is reliable as well

glowing review in something called glide magazine

https://glidemagazine.com/269640/on-tim ... um-review/

just listened to the snippet on twitter, going off that WGB seems like its maybe our answer to "how would the painting with tracks translate to the new setup"?

Its weird how PW was sort of their Hyper Pop era but its not til now (their psych fusion prog-lite era) that they do autotune.

WGB's lyrics also rip

glowing review in something called glide magazine

https://glidemagazine.com/269640/on-tim ... um-review/

Ughhgggggh but AVEY MOSTLY IS ON BASS AND DEAK ON GUITARRR whyyyy

Nice to see a positive score, but man they spend so much time talking about legacy and skate the music quite a bit. lame

"proper follow-up" my nuts

I've noticed that too from the reviews I've read so far. I think it's hard to separate everything they've done in their backlog for some people. That's just going to be a natural response and I'd be lying and saying that my own contextual experience with past AnCo music made me appreciate Time Skiffs that much more. It really sounds like the "fan favorite" record to me in that sense. The one where they just decided to play exactly to what everyone wanted in small dosages while contributing some new ideas in the forefront as well

CHZ, PW and sorta TR just getting trashed this cycle. Poor fellers. I love em all the same, like my children. But yes, TS might be more comfortably on par with the Feels->SJ->MPP club. Which is fantastic.