Collected Animals

are there places that haven't reviewed this yet you're surprised by? stereogum covered all the single drops, but never actually reviewed the album —— is that normal?

stereogum is more of a news site than a review site, they will occasionally do "premature evaluation" or "album of the week" features which are essentially reviews (but without scores) but they don't cover every big album that comes out, especially in a week like Feb 4th with a ton of big releases. so not surprised they didn't review it

Posted one of these in the transitions thread, but here's a few ideas I've been bouncing around for an AxeWorld style Skiffs rework (albeit one that might not be complete until the next album comes out)

- Live outro restored to Car Keys: https://vocaroo.com/1hxTPs2OMgvk
- Bridge autotune restored to Cherokee: https://vocaroo.com/1kMjQ5LGYumI
- Distorted sample of the Music Box version chorus in the Prester John outro (Who Knows/The Path is also featured as an intro before the main song, forming one mega-suite) https://vocaroo.com/18HbY7cpx3If

I finally gave it a listen and it didn't do much for me except the last two tracks

patience!

I only rly liked three of the tracks but it's all morphing into it's own beautiful thing lately, I like it more and more


prestor, cherokee, and r&d are goddamned stellar as standalones AT LEAST imo

prester is actually the only one that isn't growing on me immensely, though I liked it enough on first listen so that's fine

dragon slayer, car keys, passer-by, and we go back in particular have opened up in really exciting ways. and strung/cherokee/R&D blew me away on the first listen and still continue to impress

WGB just gets better and better. Love the way it rips a hole in the time/space continuum.

dragon slayer is so fucking good

avey's triplet melodies in the chorus are so singable

i'm liking car keys more and more too, i think they nailed the disorienting feel i got from hearing it the first time in 2019 while still having the more measured nuances of the 2021 versions

Let’s talk mixing. They made some interesting decisions here. There is a lot happening in these songs, so inevitably some good stuff is going to have to be buried to make room, but some of these tunes feel so dominated by the drums and vocals that I can hardly hear Dave’s bass. He does some really funky, melodic stuff and it’s barely audible through all the layers. “Strung” still feels like a mess to me, like the vocal harmonies and guitars are battling for the same real estate. “Royal” is so wet with reverb some great stuff is smeared into oblivion.

I love this record. My brain is just beguiled at some of these sonic landscapes. Maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe it’s just such a different approach to an AC record that I’m thrown off.

What do y’all think?

honestly i think this is the clearest mixing they've ever had. almost everything is so clear and pristine, i love it. i agre strung is very muddy but i think that works in its favor.

i do have a few minor gripes:

the drums and bass on dragon slayer/car keys are too quiet imo. weird because everywhere else the drums are especially massive. shout out to that kick drum
the synth during the "enemies change their miind" part in dragon slayer is buried too
i can barely make out avey in the 3 part harmony prechorus in PJ
deakin's sublime etheral vocals and geo's synth part in the second half of passerby are barely audible. my only true dissapointment

prester is actually the only one that isn't growing on me immensely, though I liked it enough on first listen so that's fine

same here, I've developed some late-stage demoitis with this one. After hearing the rest of the album and how dynamic it is, Prester feels the most rigid and flat of the bunch. And a little too full of sounds? I can't help but yearn for how it sounded in 2019 - simple, pared down. stark and forlorn. The vocals given total focus, that melody allowed all the room in the world to express itself. The bass and keys part in the verse was just 2 notes waddling back and forth, poking through for flavour - see the guitar in passerby's 2nd verse (amazing). that's what prester john needed.

Agree about the drums and bass in dragon slayer and car keys, feels like an odd decision. Was really hoping those elements would have the same prominence that they do in PJ. Car Keys has some other sick stuff going for it so it doesn't bug me as much, but the mixing on dragon slayer almost ruins it for me, just way too much airy mid range stuff going on, feels blurry and not in a good way.

Also feel like there's a little too much reverb on Josh's vocals in the Cherokee bridge. Feel like they would have been better mixed a little lower the way Dave's are. I still love that part so I've pretty much gotten used to it, but it definitely threw me at first.

[demoitis

ruined MPP for me, literally haven't listened to a boot/demo since, demoitus is real, folks


[wilford brimley cries into his laptop]

scrambledgreggs wrote:

prester is actually the only one that isn't growing on me immensely, though I liked it enough on first listen so that's fine

same here, I've developed some late-stage demoitis with this one. After hearing the rest of the album and how dynamic it is, Prester feels the most rigid and flat of the bunch.

I'm with you roopn

I think I prefer the pitchfork performance tbh. That may just be my bias toward live PB vocals showing, though. I like how muted his vocals sound on Walker because it's intentional, but on PJ they just feel dull. Deakin is already doing the soft harmony, Panda also doing a soft melody on top makes it feel like a toast sandwich with no toast.

it's a bummer broke zodiac didn't make the cut.. i think it would've fit nicely between cherokee and passerby. now i hope it transitions into defeat

@ seacrimes I'll also admit to a huge live vocals preference with noah's voice. Probably since buoys hype died down, the majority of the band's music I've spent time with has been bootlegs. His live singing style is just so cool and distinctive. But I shouldn't be surprised about it here, he has been adjusting his delivery on recordings fairly distinctly at least since tomboy - most of the time it works really well.

Lol i can't get into his vocals live, it;s like he is straining to sing while drumming, sounds very off-key a lot of the time, I was shocked by the 2019 boots and just how off he sounded compared to the other guys.

prester john and gem and i were the only two panda boots that i loved, car keys and walker were two that i didn't like at all. and his vocal performance definitely played a part in that.

then prester john became the performance i enjoyed the least out of all his studio songs. and car keys is one of my favorite tracks off the album. weird stuff

everytime I listen back to the boots now that we have the studio album, I'm not really sure how I tolerated noah's vocals from 2019. I got used to it but looking back on it, man.. really rough. there's some aspects of it that I think are cool (particularly the snarl in car keys) but most of it just feels really goofy. still I can't blame him, drumming and singing seems like an impossible task in my mind.

Yo…. Not sure why they felt the need to name drop Tom Hanks in Cherokee. Lol.

I’m just going along enjoying listening to Animal Collective and suddenly I can’t stop thinking about Tom Hanks lmfao.

We Go Back just keeps growing on me in ways I didn't expect when I first heard it - the vocals are so damn fun. The first two tracks are the only two that are a bit meh to me. The melodies in Car Keys just don't interest me too much, and I still can't get over how Dragon Slayer feels strangely muted in the verses. It's like they covered the super fun bouncy hook of the verses in a blanket or something. The rest of the album is impeccable and right up there with the best of their catalogue.

Also I went back and listened to all the boots. I'd only listened to PJ, Passer, DS, and Defeat before album release. I expected Cherokee and Car Keys to be a lot different and more impactful based on some of the reactions I'd read here. While I love the studio version of Passer-by, it and possibly DS are the only ones that sound better in the boots imo. Which is congruent with the notion that you can only get demoitis for a song that you first heard as a boot, excluding my single instance of reverse demoitis in the case of Taken Boy.

They made Dragon Slayer a shoegaze song and I'm here for it

I've always felt a punk quality to Panda's live vocals. They're kinda sloppy but in a cool way, kinda sounds like he's drunk.

2019 Dragon Slayer verses with the guitar instead of the synth line felt more epic. The chorus is better in the recorded version though

2019 Dragon Slayer is really special honestly. I love that distorted lead synth. The whole thing sounds a lot more bouncy than the studio version, it's a lot of fun. The only major improvement to me is definitely the drums, those became stellar.

2019 Dragon Slayer is really special honestly. I love that distorted lead synth. The whole thing sounds a lot more bouncy than the studio version, it's a lot of fun. The only major improvement to me is definitely the drums, those became stellar.

That version will always hold a special place in my heart. It's just one of the most beautiful and child like live songs they've done IMO.

Has anyone else heard the "vroom vrooms" during the "how are we doing now?" part of Car Keys? Can't believe it took me a week of straight listening to realize what those were

i'll keep an ear out for that. one of the first weird things i noticed is the "yeah" on the snare in We Go Back at some points.

I only recently noticed that the main two synth chords in Prester John continue through the climax. I enjoy PJ a lot more now that the whole album is out I think

awesome wrote:

are there places that haven't reviewed this yet you're surprised by? stereogum covered all the single drops, but never actually reviewed the album —— is that normal?

stereogum is more of a news site than a review site, they will occasionally do "premature evaluation" or "album of the week" features which are essentially reviews (but without scores) but they don't cover every big album that comes out, especially in a week like Feb 4th with a ton of big releases. so not surprised they didn't review it

i bet stereogum will review a show on the tour, their live coverage is usually pretty solid

anyone else having some trouble listening to this album recently? i haven’t heard really at all since the freebird and the first couple days it was out and it makes me feel bad? weird — maybe I anticipated to hard and was on the forum too hard — love

having the same issue. I listened to the freebird several times and I listened to it more on the release day and maybe the day after, and then after that I just stopped. I sort of forced myself to listen again a couple days ago. I'm not really experiencing any demoitis and I'm completely happy with how this album came out, I think I just need a break from these songs after... yknow... 3 years of obsession

I haven't listened to it a whole lot. Lots of other good stuff has come out recently I suppose. But I think for sure the block of singles in the middle is a bit of a mental block to spinning the whole thing.

glad i’m not the only one — these songs where my biggest obsession for 2+ years — and with so much other music coming out rn I just needed to give it a break. so excited for tour and bootleg season though

I understand what you all are saying but have been listening almost daily. Enough studio goodness to keep it feeling fresh despite the years of boots. Definitely stoked for the March tour boots now

the only reason i'm not listening more is because i don't want to overplay it in front of wife and turn her off it!

I’m at the point where I throw on tracks randomly when I think of them but have stopped spinning the full album daily, there’s lots of other good stuff out right now and I don’t want to wear TS out too soon

(not to shift the conversation away from the thing that just came out and talk about "THE NEXT THING" but) I'm curious how everyone plans on approaching the next album. Since I've heard a lot of the songs already via Blast Radio (and the boots a couple times) sessions (which are great and I'm going to playing the Blast Radio assembly of Time Skiffs a lot), I think I'm gonna avoid the singles, and any freebird that isn't a CD quality rip (lmao "CD quality rip" how dated)


edit: to put in time skiffs disccusion - I've been starting the album on Walker a lot recently since it's one of my favorites off it, plus it goes into the Dave songs which I really dig too.

For whatever reason I feel like if the Beatles were a band during this time period, Walker would be on Revolver. Maybe "appreciate, it cannot wait", but also the stringy part during the instrumentals sounds like something that'd be in a George song. I fuckin love the bassline!!

I'm still listening through the whole thing most days. Sometimes just from cherokee because of the big block of singles, but usually I wanna hear slayer and car keys too

I think I'll only feel like giving it a rest when it stops feeling surprising. For now it still feels like there are lots of shadowy corners I haven't yet illuminated

Speaking of, since I'm usually still reeling from passerby I still haven't fully absorbed We Go Back, it goes by so fast. Excited for that one to hit me deeper

Still listening semi daily via mostly it being in rotation in my car. I've been breaking up listens with Pavement records for whatever reason. Embracing the singles suite is what has made the flow and relistens possible.

And if my record player wasn't broke, I'd be listening to it even more. It helps me deal with the fact that I don't think I like most of the other hyped albums about rn