Collected Animals

^give it some time to settle. I know what you mean. My first listen on Sunday to vinyl rip was a lil awkward and so much of that has faded now.

would really appreciate a pm

This album just blew my ass off into space and I don't think I'll ever return

royal and desire killed me

As much as a bunch of us love and enjoy CHz, PW, TR etc (myself included) I struggle to see how anyone could listen to this album and deny that it connects and excites on a level not felt since MPP.

I have A LOT of fun listening to the albums mentioned above, but this hits that mystical, spiritual, unfathomably incredible spot that made me love them, like no other band.

could I please get pm'ed...i like applesauce

Stan wrote:

moop wrote:

Damn, that voice tho~

I can only apologise...

I hope I at least pointed in the right direction!

Nooo it was sexy and beautiful lol

not to make a throuple but

As much as a bunch of us love and enjoy CHz, PW, TR etc (myself included) I struggle to see how anyone could listen to this album and deny that it connects and excites on a level not felt since MPP.

I have A LOT of fun listening to the albums mentioned above, but this hits that mystical, spiritual, unfathomably incredible spot that made me love them, like no other band.

Wonderfully said! Absolutely agree. I've also noticed that time almost feels like it passes incredibly quickly listening to this album. So succinct and punchy for how mythical it is.

Also, no one has pointed it out so far: Dragon Slayer IS the Dark Souls song!!!!!!! Anor Londo as fuck!!! (this album will be the partial soundtrack to Elden Ring)

I have written a poem please enjoy

nintendo DS
louis CK
goodnight, I'm getting into my PJs
SWEaty wow now I can't sleep
guess I'll WALKER outside to my
jeep CHEROKEE
PASSER-BY the local landmarks
over the West Gate Bridge*
a jaywalker appears in front of me, the jeep slams on its own breaks avoiding a horrific crash, thank god for Research and Development


thank


*a real bridge near where I live

I’ve heard it all. I just couldn’t sit on my hands with a high quality download being waved in my face. My oh my do we have things to discuss!

OVERALL

Everyone on this album feels right at home, both within themselves and the band as a whole. I love how the songs make room for each other. The outros/intros help a lot with that, but they also imply scope beyond the songs themselves. There’s a richness to the production that cannot be ignored. I was grinning ear to ear for the whole 50 minutes. This album is pure friggin magic. I think the latter years of this band are going to be something really special for us fans and this album is just the start.

DRAGON SLAYER

I’m sorry, it’s just not doing it for me yet like the others are. I wish it either A) took its time getting started or B) kicked off right away with that opening chord. It’s still good, just not great. It will most likely grow on me with repeated listens and better speakers.

CAR KEYS

Oh Car Keys, what have they done to you??!! Just kidding. This track is W I L D. It almost feels like this one song is threatening to escape the album it’s in to go off and do its own thing. And yet, somehow it’s right at home here on track 2. Thank god for that.

PRESTER JOHN

This one was my favorite of the boots and has remained on that level for me. I’m happy to report that it works even better on the album than it did as a single.

STRUNG WITH EVERYTHING

This song stands about as tall as a human can and no higher. It’s perfect for that. Later sections of this album feel insurmountably huge, but this song is a warm blooded human.

WALKER

Someone got Car Keys to put on a tie and go to church. I’m proud of this one for demanding a place at the table amongst the rest of these goliath tracks. And you know what, I think it really does have a place. But personally, I still be giving head to Car Keys at the back of the cathedral.

CHEROKE

So danceable! Impossible not to think of driving down a dark and windy road with Avey’s Cheshire grin whispering to you above the tree tops. Can’t wait to take this one for a drive.

PASSER-BY

I didn’t care much for this song from the boots, but my lord, hearing it now with this production, it steals the show. The opening is enormous and makes me think of mushrooms blooming wide. Then the back half becomes this off-kilter, almost fragile thing, until those sweet, sweet harmonies come in to bring it all home. Softly powerful song that’s going to stay with me until I die.

WE GO BACK

A parasite feeding off the blood of this album. Lives on the same planet as Car Keys, from the Centipede HZ galaxy. It’s good.

ROYAL and DESIRE

Real Atman/Brahman energy going on here. Hearing Deakin be this huge isn’t just cathartic, it’s a revelation. Gorgeous, gorgeous closer.

Wonderfully said! Absolutely agree. I've also noticed that time almost feels like it passes incredibly quickly listening to this album. So succinct and punchy for how mythical it is.

Totally. Every listen flies by. Maybe its the clarity of the production? There is so much to identify and digest and enjoy that the songs are over before you feel like you've totally absorbed them. Great for replay value.

Also, no one has pointed it out so far: Dragon Slayer IS the Dark Souls song!!!!!!! Anor Londo as fuck!!! (this album will be the partial soundtrack to Elden Ring)

I am sorry but I have no idea what any of this means. It is possible that I am too old

I have written a poem please enjoy

nintendo DS
louis CK
goodnight, I'm getting into my PJs
SWEaty wow now I can't sleep
guess I'll WALKER outside to my
jeep CHEROKEE
PASSER-BY the local landmarks
over the West Gate Bridge*
a jaywalker appears in front of me, the jeep slams on its own breaks avoiding a horrific crash, thank god for Research and Development


thank


*a real bridge near where I live

incredible.

Also gr8 post Downthereswamp

roopn - a masterpiece!

Downthereswamp: loved your thoughts. especially this bit:

Everyone on this album feels right at home, both within themselves and the band as a whole. I love how the songs make room for each other. The outros/intros help a lot with that, but they also imply scope beyond the songs themselves.

Just woke up and have the day off. Can someone please bless my soul with a pm?

Edit: that was fast, thank you very much!

Could I get one of them Skiff pm's?

Damn I hadn’t been following. Anyone PM me the HQ version? Much love

on the condition that you come back here and tell us all about it

Hiya, would love a PM if anyone’s around! Literally had just sat down to write a whole thing on it and checked here in time!

Edit: Praise be thank you!

dude its fuckin lit

Passer-by is so full of grief and gratitude at the same time. The end passage is incredibly moving. Grief for the death of a relationship but gratitude for what it gave you and how it helped you grow. Love the way Avey often writes these things directly enough to clearly convey the emotion but just vague enough so that you can imagine it in various contexts. This could work as being about those fleeting moments of a stranger's kindness, the way a random brief encounter can shift your mood or change your perspective. But it could also work just as well being about loss of a loved one, seeing the impact someone had on you as part of the mourning process. Realising how brief our time together really is. We're like ships in the night. Or it could be about a break up, the narrator parting ways with a partner but knowing it is better to have loved and lost etc. Feeling like they didn't get long enough together.

The change in quality really has elevated the sonic cohesiveness here. The album feels like it was crafted with so much attention and passion. Their music has always reflected where they're at in their own lives. Panda, Deak, and Avey all have their own tones throughout but it ties together in a way that feels right.

I can't help but feel this album is about self reflection. On battles with creativity, recalling past relationships, accepting and understanding where you came from. Navigating all these thoughts in your mind like you're sailing through oceans of assessment. Part of me feels like it's a beautiful beginning to the ending of something we love.

This album is phenomenal and it's something that will stick with me for a long time.

The change in quality really has elevated the sonic cohesiveness here. The album feels like it was crafted with so much attention and passion. Their music has always reflected where they're at in their own lives. Panda, Deak, and Avey all have their own tones throughout but it ties together in a way that feels right.

I can't help but feel this album is about self reflection. On battles with creativity, recalling past relationships, accepting and understanding where you came from. Navigating all these thoughts in your mind like you're sailing through oceans of assessment. Part of me feels like it's a beautiful beginning to the ending of something we love.

This album is phenomenal and it's something that will stick with me for a long time.

Beautiful words. Let's hope its not the beginning of the end, but the beginning of a new beginning.

In the best possible way, this feels like their mid-life crisis album. An album of self-reflection and, like you said, assessment. The boys settling into this stage of life and drawing strength from their bond while they navigate a new range of challenges.

it's just too good. so so incredibly worth the wait, and one i feel like i'm gonna be chewing on for a long while. i wanna make a proper writeup later, if just for my own sake, but now i really just gotta properly bask in it. what a masterpiece.

Passer-by is so full of grief and gratitude at the same time. The end passage is incredibly moving. Grief for the death of a relationship but gratitude for what it gave you and how it helped you grow. Love the way Avey often writes these things directly enough to clearly convey the emotion but just vague enough so that you can imagine it in various contexts. This could work as being about those fleeting moments of a stranger's kindness, the way a random brief encounter can shift your mood or change your perspective. But it could also work just as well being about loss of a loved one, seeing the impact someone had on you as part of the mourning process. Realising how brief our time together really is. We're like ships in the night. Or it could be about a break up, the narrator parting ways with a partner but knowing it is better to have loved and lost etc. Feeling like they didn't get long enough together.

Couldn’t agree more. Grief takes so many forms; the band has written about all kinds of it but Passer-by’s simple description of what that looks like is almost like how you describe it after the acceptance stage. Avey’s voice is exhausted in the coda, but he’s at a stage where the heartbreak is settled in and he can speak plainly about it.

Having gone through so much grief during this pandemic, it’s a comfort to hear that sort of quiet air surrounding it.

Random comment - This album does not belong on headphones. Blast this on your speakers boys. Not only because everyone should have the joy of hearing it, but because it is almost begging you to give it the air in your room. This HQ freebird of Royal and Desire was absolutely next level on my studio monitors....

I had this same feeling in regards to CHz. ESPECIALLY New Town Burnout.

v much hoping for an official live album or three out of this era

It warms my heart to see such a unanimously positive response to the album on this board. In past cycles we would have a handful of naysayers by this point but so far everyone who’s been speaking up has found something to love about Time Skiffs, whether it’s just one part of a song or the whole album. This one’s a really special release in many ways

Listening to Skiffs and thinking about everything the boys have done over their long careers, and (hopefully) how many more worlds they'll open and eras they'll have in the years to come is intense.

I can't wait to listen to Avey's solo records he drops in his 60s and 70s. Old man Avey will be quite a vibe I think

I can’t get over the irony of how well-mixed this album is and how it sounds like a perfected version of the live sounds, even though it was all recorded separately. I remember reading about how frequently the band would record sounds directly from their PA speakers in the studio and splice live runs to try and make it sound truly live. But the whole album kind of sounds like I’m in the same room while they play it more than anything they’ve done

Another errant thought is that I’m glad Defeat is not on this. This album actually feels surprisingly human, if not personal, and songs like Defeat feel more like looking out than looking in. I know Panda’s been trying to universalize his lyrics in that fashion and Skiffs feels like the perfect middleground—not too cryptic but nothing necessarily personal.

my only complaint about Time Skiffs is that i think the intro to "Royal and Desire" should have been about 5 minutes long. so ethereal, beautiful, timeless, nostalgic, transcendent, mystical, fantastical, and perplexing. i wanted to stay in that levitated state for so much longer. [it's not a real complaint, more an absolute compliment]

also what the We Go Back video is SO COOL

Hey could anyone help me with the new bird? Pleeeease

New bird has been crunched. Thanks!

Dear esteemed To whom it may concern:


Pm?


Kindest Regards and Karmic Jubilees,

Vovenarg


Edit: Received, many thanks.

also what the We Go Back video is SO COOL

Yes!! Just watched this

could anyone throw me a pm please? thanks!

Sonic anomalies.

Sonic anomalies everywhere.

<3

Yeh it’s awesome isn’t it? They’ve done such an amazing job of making the songs sound clean and spacious whilst still packing them with little easter eggs and surprises everywhere

Any chance I could get a fistbump to the face? stuck in a long queue on soulseek and I need that hq before I have to go to work

received thank you!

Just listened to the whole thing twice in a row.
I'll probably write a few longer paragraphs after it had time to really sink in, but my initial thought: it's just fucking beautiful.

Cherokee is ACs San Jacinto.
Passer-by is perfectly summed up by this guy:

R&D is the cherry on top of a really tasty cake.
Can't wait to listen to this thing over and over (our song on my brain) again.