Collected Animals

We starting talking about the strawberry jam LP and Safer in one of the live topics and thought I’d carry it over to its own. ..

When I read that 2018 article and what Avey said about SJ I was absolutely stunned! Safer n the entire LP itself was my breakthrough to my obsession with them lol. I’ll never forget the first time I heard Safer. We were driving somewhere right at dusk time probably around this same time 8/9 years back and just the way the song synced with the timing of the sunset below my mind right out of my heart!!! It’s been one of the most magical experiences for me, musically.
I never like saying “favorite song” especially singling out an AC song but yes indeed I hold Safer as my favorite masterpiece song in all of music and just above Alvin Row.
It’s also why I’m so excited about the upcoming Defeat song bc they all have that common element of which it has those multiple segments of beautiful bliss!

*bonus* I always interpreted the lyrics of Safer to be about a day in a life of what it’s like to be in a relationship(any kind) with somewhere who was PTSD (or any mental disorder at that)

Curious to know more on how you guys hear the song ?

I interpreted it as post 9/11 hysteria and how America changed

I think it's about Avey lamenting how Panda's always writing songs about leaving the band

I think he writes more about cumming

I think it's about Avey lamenting how Panda's always writing songs about leaving the band

lol

Once me and cheyrou in high school were grooving and head banging so hard in my 97 Nissan Altima outside a Jack in the Box in high school to the like breakdown rhythmic part with "she's got some diamonds and they..." And especially "like crocodiles" that a lady got me to roll down my window to ask if we were alright. She then gave us her business card for her beauty salon . We were weird and it was either 09 or '10. He don't even really like ac too

My favorite AC song too.

Can’t say I’m a fan of AC.

Maybe the quintessential AC song? I love that it was left off SJ. It's its own thing. It's mythical. How many times have they ever played it? And then it pops up in a once-off DJ set a decade later. Will they ever play it again? What even is this song

It's got everything AC does best. Off-kilter structuring, ambiance, anxiety, unraveling melody, bliss, a freak-out. It sounds like it was spat straight out of a live show too, has that looseness to it. Lyrically it's Avey unblinking into humanity and our place as animals in a world we have distinctly fashioned aside from nature. What we do to each other in the name of protection and safety. As hard as it is to sum up their body of work I dunno I think this probably comes closest.

was jamming to safer otw to work and this car cut me off mid-jam and it was this girl i work with and now she knows i smoke

Maybe the quintessential AC song? I love that it was left off SJ. It's its own thing. It's mythical. How many times have they ever played it? And then it pops up in a once-off DJ set a decade later. Will they ever play it again? What even is this song

It's got everything AC does best. Off-kilter structuring, ambiance, anxiety, unraveling melody, bliss, a freak-out. It sounds like it was spat straight out of a live show too, has that looseness to it. Lyrically it's Avey unblinking into humanity and our place as animals in a world we have distinctly fashioned aside from nature. What we do to each other in the name of protection and safety. As hard as it is to sum up their body of work I dunno I think this probably comes closest.

Me too. It baffled me when people got mad that it was removed from SJ on streaming apps because it doesn't feel like it belongs on that album at all. It is its own era of AC music separate from SJ, Water Curses etc., on some other plane of existence.

Sonically it matches SJ more or less but structurally and thematically it's completely off on its own orbit

You guys think Avey still sees ghosts? Zak Bagans collab?

Like many others at the time I was saddened it was left off SJ, but came to appreciate it as a B-side

I still think it could've been put in there after Fireworks instead of #1, or as a closer after Derek

SJ is pretty perfect as it is imo but i would love to hear Derek come on after it. A bit of levity after a very heavy song

I actually listened to this today having not heard in ages. It feels much more like an in-studio live take than anything on SJ, especially the vocal performance. There are very few obvious overdubs (a few times avey backing or doubling himself in the second half that I noticed).
also I totally forgot about DON'T GET TOO FREAKY ON ME!!!!

spectacular song