Need to find the swimming pool

Play it: Animal Collective Feels

This one didn't drop w/ the rest of Tuesday's new releases ('sup wit these Rhaps-o-delays?) but it is here, so let's all together rejoice in our headphones (seriously... put on the headphones... not those damn earbuds, you can't properly swim in earbuds.)

Animal Collective have always made my ears tickle, but this time around, like freak folk mate Devendra Banhart, they're experimenting with some traditional rock structures on some of their songs. This sounds restricting to band as free sounding as Animal Collective are, but in truth, here they sound even more free. It only takes a few bars into the lead-off track' "Do You See the Words," to hear this more melodic approach at work then they launch into rocker "Grass," which is nearly a normal rock song, aside from the fact the chorus is synchronized screams and crashing drums. Roy Wood would be very proud. A couple tracks later, it's a bit more Pet Sounds with the tremendous "Purple Bottle," which will make it on to nearly as many future mix-cd's in the coming year as Sung Tongs' "Who Could Win A Rabbit" did last year.

After these blasts of, dare I say it, indie rock, AC drift back into their soundscapes that made Sung Tongs such a dreamy release last year. "Banshee Boat" is a headphone journey that builds and builds upon simple structure of a pulsing guitar and multi-layered percussion and for eight-trance-inducing-minutes we "need to find the swimming pool." After four soundscape tracks, they end it with another upbeat bundle gleeful complexity in "Turn Into Something."

A joyous noise to swim in, from start to finish.

Note: Sometimes it must seem like I'm shoveling hyperbole, but truly this fall has been an amazing time for releases... I don't have the time to even write a little about everything that's turning me on right now. Soon we'll be getting into end of year lists, though, and I'll spread some love around then.

Previously:
Freak Folk

tags: playlist, music, animal collective, freak folk