I like Animal Collective better when it's really them

My review of the new Painted Palms album, Forever went up yesterday at the Dusted Tumblr.

"You never believe it until it happens, but stick around long enough and bands that once seemed impossible to copy will attract a swarm of also-rans. Back in 2002, no one sounded like Liars (though Liars sounded, for a brief interval in 'Tumbling Walls' exactly like ESG). A few years later, weaker tinctures from Franz Ferdinand, Maximo Park and the Futureheads pounded those same jerky, abrasive sounds into oblivion. Devendra Banhart was goddam weird in 2003, then in just a couple of years a tribe of moonchild, freak folkers came to surround him, all bleating the same slyly innocent hippie nonsense.

It’s happened, too, with Animal Collective, whose tribal beats, yelps and sunny, ether-vaulting melodies made for one of the weirdest aesthetics ever to go mega. How could you copy that kind of insanity, we might have asked, back in 2001 or 2002? And yet, here we are with Au and Nurses and Braids and Le Loup and – let’s just get it out of the way – Painted Palms. All are vaguely reminiscent, none nearly as good. The inimitable is beset on every side by imitators, and if the sonics are similar, the energy is lacking. There is nothing quite so disappointing as giddiness that falls flat.

More

Messy, abrasive, static-fuzzed Animal Collective

I've been struggling with the new Animal Collective, not exactly loving it but not able to dismiss it entirely either...my review's up today at Dusted.

Animal Collective
Centipede Hz
Domino

Animal Collective’s 10th album, Centipede Hz falls about as far from 2009’s Merriweather Post Pavilion as possible, replacing that beloved record’s clean, weightless anthemry with messy, abrasive, static-fuzzed sonics. It is shot through with radio references, both in the voices that filter through cuts like “Moonjock” and “Monkey Riches” and in the between-the-stations indefiniteness that veils even the most emphatic tracks. Recorded more or less live, with Avey Tare, Panda Bear, Geologist and Deakin all taking part (Deakin sat out Merriweather Post Pavilion), the album has a ceaseless busy-ness. “Today’s Supernatural,” the single, is nearly impenetrable, a frantic, antic fugue-state of video game and carnival sounds that coalesces only in the call to “let-let-let-let-let-let go.” And yet, at its best, in the closing “Amanita,” for instance, Centipede Hz conjures absolute joy.

More


You can stream the whole album (if you haven't already) here.

New Animal Collective video

I think probably everyone in the world will post this video today, because, hey, it's Animal Collective, possibly the weirdest really popular band ever, so they get both the oddball and the general hipster vote. So in perhaps the most eccentric demonstration of conformity ever, I join the crowd.



Centipede HZ is out September 4. I can't tell you anything about it, actually...advanced promos are for much bigger journalists than me. (I did interview Panda Bear once, and he was super nice.)

Dusted's mid-year picks

Some interesting albums on Dusted's mid-year report, which came out Friday. I've only heard a few of these (my own, Akron/Family's Set 'Em Wild Set 'Em Free, Animal Collective, Allen Toussaint and the Death reissue), so lots of work to do.

Also, my review of the super freaky Magnificence in the Memory by mid-1970s LA cult band (not in the sense of only having a few rabid followers, but more in the sense of actually being a cult) YaHoWha.

Here's "Treat You So Right"

A.C. Newman

What a great week I had last week, reviewing both the new Boston Spaceships and A.C. Newman’s latest. Boston Spaceships won’t be up for a while, but Dusted’s got my review of Get Guilty up right now. I say, “Newman practices a spinning plate sort of complexity, juggling big rock sounds on fragile sticks of melody, heaping difficulty upon difficulty, without a single crash (or even a grimace). It looks easy. It sounds easy. It is not.” There’s more here.


“Submarines of Stockholm”

Also, while you’re over there, check out how the usually cranky Dusted calls Merriweather Post Pavillion “the finest moment in the Animal Collective’s decade-plus history.” It’s a really good review of a really good album by Michael Crumsho.

First day of the year...album of the year

You all know how much I hate agreeing with Pitchforkmedia (leave off the media and you'll find yourself at a feedstore)...but yesterday I was lying motionless, listening in awe and excitement to Meriweather Post Pavilion, the new Animal Collective, and today they have awarded the CD a 9.6.

What are we going to do for the rest of the year?

Oh, yeah, we'll think of something.