Collected Animals

I think this thing takes off even more after 6 or 7 listens. It somehow gains even more clarity and just leaves me in awe.

Yeah definitely! I hear more layers each time, and noticed that I could actually understand the songs on headphones after a few listens. Its so crazy that your mind can make sense of what was previously confusion after a few attempts. Maybe that's a good mantra to carry around.

Also, all of AC discography has been sounding really beautiful since I've heard TS. Something magic in the air right now for sure.

roopn wrote:

Amazed with how the drums really have a voice of their own in the mix, I've never heard anything like that before

Second this. They make the record. Kind of like a Tame Impala-esque level of attention, but in a totally different but mesmerizing way.

The drums definitely have that ethereal quality. I think they help lend to the “river of sound” aesthetic. Overall the drums feel much more cohesive and at times restrained when compared to their past album cuts… (chores, cuckoo cuckoo, amanita, etc).

This is definitely a more accessible animal collective, but I really appreciate this balance they strike between left field melodies, vocals, songwriting, but being anchored in some really strong and steady drums. Similarly, I like some of the bass lines for their simplicity and ability to anchor the other parts of the songs that are still as animal collective as they’ve ever been.

I love how the kick drum sounds like it's right next to me even through my somewhat crappy car speakers.

am i crazy or is this album LOUD

i don't feel like it's loud, but it feels very big.

Album rules. My only complaint is that the ending chorus of Prester John (with "treating every day" counter melody being sang) really should've gone on at least two more times. I may end up editing it to see what it sounds like. It's just such a tasty refrain and we only get it ONE time and then the song is over. Am I nuts?

You’re not nuts at all. I’ve had to train myself to not expect it to happen again.

Well in that case, does someone who is good at protools or whatever want to do it? I can try on GarageBand but it'll probably sound like doodoo.

I feel the exact same way about Prester John. It would hit so much harder if it repeated the overlapping lines even just one more time.

Agreed. Maybe AxeWorld can throw that together with his inevitable reworked Skiffs.

I feel the exact same way about Prester John. It would hit so much harder if it repeated the overlapping lines even just one more time.

Lately I've been assembling a sort of AxeWorld-style TS megamix of my own, and while there's only so much I'm able to do without the rest of the songs from this era, I've managed to make a couple of interesting changes - reordering the track listing to my liking, having the songs smoothly transition into each other, restoring the autotune to the Cherokee bridge, even adding The Path as an intro to Prester John + putting an echo of the Music Box Prester chorus in the hurdy-gurdy outro of the current version. Definitely gonna add repeating the overlapping Prester chorus bits one more time to the changelog

"Royal & Desire" on vinyl is 100% my all-time favorite animal collective song. Its so lush, so huge, I've been playing this song again, and again, and again and I could just spend a year in its world. What magnificent stuff.

foxtrot wrote:

I think this thing takes off even more after 6 or 7 listens. It somehow gains even more clarity and just leaves me in awe.

Yeah definitely! I hear more layers each time, and noticed that I could actually understand the songs on headphones after a few listens. Its so crazy that your mind can make sense of what was previously confusion after a few attempts. Maybe that's a good mantra to carry around.

Also, all of AC discography has been sounding really beautiful since I've heard TS. Something magic in the air right now for sure.

I've been so obsessed with TS that I haven't listened to any other AC since it came out. I haven't even made it the whole way through Cate Le Bon or BCNR yet. I get 3 or 4 tracks in and just want to hear TS again


RE: Drums
They're fantastic. Like people have said, they have such a clear, crisp voice on the album. Some of Noah's simplest drumming in a lot of ways, but that actually enhances their effect. He just establishes these awesome grooves that the whole album rides on.

RE: PJ overlapping melodic lines at the end: I agree that you kind of feel like it should happen one more time. I think its definitely a deliberate decision to leave us hanging though. certainly makes me want to hear the song again. and then with AC's usual clever sequencing we get the final section of SWE really driven home with three big repetitions. I think PJ stays deliberately a bit restrained/unresolved in order to drive home the album's first major climax at the end of SWE.

finally got my vinyl

god damn it sounds good. god fuckin damn.

That interview hahaha, the hurdy gurdy story is hilarious. Geo drove from maryland to fucking like Michigan or some shit? To take a ferry across the lake? The lady plays We go back after?? Does that song have hurdy gurdy on it? Is it in the chorus?

got my vinyl today too. love the art on the inner gatefold, reminds me of the Copelands' aesthetic on Black Dice art

I thought the vinyl was supposed to come with a lyric booklet though? mine doesn't have one

it makes me so happy to think that the same band that made this album also made Hollinndagain

(EDIT: Painful! Dave does his best) video interview w/ dave

Is there a secret rule that journalists can't write about AC without mentioning the Beach Boys?

when i go to bed at night, i kiss my wife, i kiss my son and then i kiss Time Skiffs

That interview hahaha, the hurdy gurdy story is hilarious. Geo drove from maryland to fucking like Michigan or some shit? To take a ferry across the lake? The lady plays We go back after?? Does that song have hurdy gurdy on it? Is it in the chorus?

wat innerview?

(EDIT: Painful! Dave does his best) video interview w/ dave

Painful? He's a little nervous but it was a pretty good interview I thought, with a few good insights

The interviewer was the more painful part.

(EDIT: Painful! Dave does his best) video interview w/ dave

That was a fun watch! That ESG song is really cool too!

My Time Skiffs vinyl I preordered from Domino keeps getting pushed back! Now it won't come in till the 12th! So dumb...

Mine came a day earlier than was projected for like the whole time, so don't lose hope.

That Avey interview is kinda wild... he seems... so cliche but... stoned maybe? Maybe not, idk. I feel like he hates video chat but is still going all out and doing his best. what a champ

Here is the song Avey mentioned if anyone is curious.

FEEL ON1NE!!! wrote:

That interview hahaha, the hurdy gurdy story is hilarious. Geo drove from maryland to fucking like Michigan or some shit? To take a ferry across the lake? The lady plays We go back after?? Does that song have hurdy gurdy on it? Is it in the chorus?

wat innerview?

https://www.wnyc.org/story/all-of-it-2022-02-07/

Deakin also confirms they are “already working on” their next record. Nice to hear him say record rather than EP or double-single or whatever.

thx man. i thought the vid innerview was epic. daves recording grief was sad to hear but a great fuel for the darkness that is passerby

Jam wrote:

(EDIT: Painful! Dave does his best) video interview w/ dave

Painful? He's a little nervous but it was a pretty good interview I thought, with a few good insights

I think Dave is just fine here! I just really did not care for the gushing from the interviewer and some of the questions felt misplaced (like asking Dave about the Scott Walker influence when Panda wrote Walker) -- it's not that it isn't nice to compliment an artist on their work or tell them what it means to you, but it doesn't make for good radio and there's not really any great way for an artist to respond to it as the artist.

what's this about passer-by and dave's grief? I missed whatever interview that came from

TBH I will never interact with any of the guys because I know for sure I'm a gusher (do not take "I'm a gusher" out of context please)

what's this about passer-by and dave's grief? I missed whatever interview that came from

soz he was just talking about being bummed about recording at home by himself after making cows. n it wasnt that enjoyable doing it in the end . i made my own tie to passerby

anyone else notice in Walker Noah is basically saying he can't wait to die? lol. sort of on brand i guess

mildew_on_rice wrote:

what's this about passer-by and dave's grief? I missed whatever interview that came from

soz he was just talking about being bummed about recording at home by himself after making cows. n it wasnt that enjoyable doing it in the end . i made my own tie to passerby

This was a good nugget -- Seems like there are so many albums that Dave has hard memories around or had difficulty recording. Seems like the Skiffs stuff could go into a hole for a while after this era

anyone else notice in Walker Noah is basically saying he can't wait to die? lol. sort of on brand i guess

don't remember where but he has said this song is about depression and then he apologized to Scott Walker lol

EDIT: I think my turn table broke

lol I think my vinyl warped red/black one too

maybe its somehow just Dragon Slayer, and there is small chance my turn table just broke, but I don't think so, its just changing in speed ever verse or so. Often sounds normal/beautiul lol. Its like an experimental version.

Its cool tho. I got the cd in the car and MP3s right here and aux cable but shit. idc

lol I think my vinyl warped red/black one too

maybe its somehow just Dragon Slayer, and there is small chance my turn table just broke, but I don't think so, its just changing in speed ever verse or so. Often sounds normal/beautiul lol. Its like an experimental version.

Its cool tho. I got the cd in the car and MP3s right here and aux cable but shit. idc

Not maintaining consistent speeds? Belt drive or direct drive TT? It may be the belt, which is totally fixable.

Album slaps very hard. One moment that bothers me every time though...the ending to Passer-by! Perhaps one of the most epic and dark maelstroms of sound in their catalog at the end, you feel yourself starting to slide down the rabbit hole, Panda is singing a fantastic countermelody, and then....a really weird off-tempo harmony in a major key to end it that doesn't fit in at all?! I feel like there are forty more epic endings to that song, and I get a strong sense of what could have been.

Regardless, I think this album really demonstrates the value and freshness that Deakin's vocals bring to the sound. It's a different band when he jumps into the usual Avey/Panda tradeoffs and harmonies - he takes it to another level. That's what really separates this era of the band from others to me.

dio wrote:

lol I think my vinyl warped red/black one too

maybe its somehow just Dragon Slayer, and there is small chance my turn table just broke, but I don't think so, its just changing in speed ever verse or so. Often sounds normal/beautiul lol. Its like an experimental version.

Its cool tho. I got the cd in the car and MP3s right here and aux cable but shit. idc

Not maintaining consistent speeds? Belt drive or direct drive TT? It may be the belt, which is totally fixable.

I think my 45 setting is broken? Put on another record running fine at 33. And I have a Weyes Blood ep that it was doing that to as well but maybe that was also 45. ruh roh..

from what played normally, it sounded incredible on vinyl, like maybe better than ever. vinyl > car > headphones ? hm

Key piece from the all of it interview is Brian saying probably none of those string instruments would have been on the record if they had gone in with the 2020 arrangements