It is currently Mon May 12, 2025 8:34 am
All times are UTC
My choice is Lion in a Coma.
also father time is a plain old great song, i don't get why its considered dispensable by a lot of people. that one just slaps and is catchy, should be a totally uncontroversially good song imo.
all my bitches cook grits
^agreed.
all my bitches cook grits
Laughed For A World Filled With Fantasy is top tier Person Pitch never-was, as good as anything he's done. I miss that side of his melodies, that ecstatic weightlessness. Need to lock the guy in a basement again.
amanita isn't like, an underdog necessarily, but i think it's like top 5 songs they've ever done (hence my username lmao)
also i've never listened to crumbling land i gotta get around to that!
edit: oh wait i should explain why i think amanita is that good lmao. for one thing, it's one of avey's most effective works on a compositional level, the whole thing is in varying modes of C major but never once resolves to a C chord until the final ending chant, it's absolutely masterful setup and payoff. and like, he does this sorta thing a lot but i think it's the best instance of him starting out with a verse/chorus/verse/chorus structure that ends up being a fakeout for the actual focal point of the song, the bridge that gets played twice and then that absolutely amazing perfect outro with one of the best melodies he's ever written... and then the lyrics are so great, so much angst about the loss of some essential quality of life as you move further into adulthood, and right at the climax a resolution to build it back up and find the same magic from other sources, just really fucking special stuff i think
also father time is a plain old great song, i don't get why its considered dispensable by a lot of people. that one just slaps and is catchy, should be a totally uncontroversially good song imo. and also monkey riches! monkey riches is just great and some people seem to have this allergic reaction to it that i just don't really get, it's like the cilantro of animal collective songs i guess lmao
My choice is Lion in a Coma. Proggiest rhythym on MPP maybe, incredibly subtle yet visceral vocal processing on initial verses, like there's a weird alien Avey trying to break thru and get Out of (his) Clothes and into a Bedroom. There are also some overwhelming string and choir sounding synths that feel more directly lush than the more arpeggiated and airy harmonies of the prior tunes in the tracklist
The big, bombastic Marry Poppins ish melodies and 100-lyrics-a-minute kill me. Truly psychedelic and peak hallucinagenic production that feels like a climax of MPP up to that point before a little epilogue in the form of No More Brother Sport one-two
Too Soon. not only does it have some of Panda's best and most relentless/enthusiasm drumming, but it serves as both a grand ascension and a sigh of relief after a particularly anxious album. the tones and production on the guitar are heavenly and the vocal harmonies, heavily processed though they be, sound particularly transcendent to me, the lyrics are pretty much unintelligible without a lyric sheet but their sounds convey so much emotion. the whole thing just sounds so majestic and regal, feels like a chance encounter with some alien yet benevolent spirit, deep in the dark woods, who lifts you out of a bad trip and carries you to safety. nothing else sounds quite like it, even in AC's catalog
Tangential to this thread's topic but I firmly believe that Winter Wonderland is easily in the top 5 AC songs, lyrics-wise. Something about the first verse being written from the perspective of a snowman is genius and it's hard to explain why
Wastered occupies a unique spot in the AC catalogue. No other song vibes quite like it. I like to sprawl on the couch and get lost.
In the City that Reads is amazing. The way the jangly guitars/something and the clanking percussion mixed with bloops start out the song out as totally epic. The instumentation and melodies in the background are approaching pleasant, something unheard of in 2002 Animal Collective (disclaimer. I love their early stuff, It's my favorite, It's amazing, but you can't call it pleasant to your friends who only listen to Journey and AC/DC hahaha) Also thumping drums and such noises. The only source it's available (cd not included) has 8k views so shame on you all
Death Raga by Avey Tare is squelchy and sounds like someone dying. Also you got some EEEEeeeeEEuuuUUUuUuUUhHhhHhhh (Squelch Squelch Squelch wahwahwah) eeEEuuUUUUUhhh
Bleeding (Live) on the Borthersport vinyl is really, really good! They have only about 300 samples they didn't use on the studio version.
Ocean by Avey Tare (sil named it that way I guess) Is the best because it's probably the most calm song Animal collective has ever done.
The Bog by Avey Tare is really calm and chill. A crime this wasn't on a one-off single!
Mich mit einer mond by Panda Bear is going to be played at my funeral. It is a perfect song!
Whaddit I done and Spirit They Vanished are strangely two very similar, extremely underrated songs that to me have a parallel composition: an abrasive/seemingly out of place noise atop a simple base of wistful vocals and a guitar synth line. they are just executed in two very different ways. But as the spirit feedback loop is daunting to some people tend to think the whaddits' wahwahs are just stupid... which i could see but you are doing a disservice to yourself bc it is truly kind've emblematic of that era of silly sounding heartfelt acoustic jams but also i have a funny read on it that the wahwahs are supposed to represent the mealy mouthed nature of the song, since the climax of the song is an admission of need.
Man, fun reading these. "Wastered"—this one really warped my teenage brain.
I'll make the case for "Good Loving Outside."
My grandpa built a house—the "house that Burt built"—in the woods. He repurposed these big, black railroad ties for joists. There was a garden and raspberry bushes, a pond, a workshop, a claw foot tub, a screened porch with tins of sugar cookies between wax paper. And it had a wooden staircase. And—you guessed it—"at breakfast time" (see "Mouth Wooed Her") my brothers and I would "slide on down the wooden staircase" straight into a pile of grandma's pancakes. The song just puts a stupid smile on my face: Avey's flock of seagulls imitation; the slippery, slurpy sounds coming at you from all angles; Avey's "ning ning ning ning ning" towards the end; the impossible-to-decipher rhythm (hint: there is none); the "wah wah wah wah." It's AC's "Why Don't We Do It in the Road?" And it's so earthy and raw—I smell decomposing leaves and rain.
"There's a place I know where we can go..." Who isn't entranced by that?
All times are UTC