A psychedelic Collective
Feels is similar to a walk in the park, only hallucinogenic and not quite as simple.
Oct. 25, 2005
Aren't The Beach Boys fantastic? "Good Vibrations" is an outstanding song, though 'excitations' probably isn't a word. Brian Wilson is either the most genius or most insane songwriter that ever lived. The man wrote songs in a giant sandbox and was friends with Charles Manson. After writing Pet Sounds, however, he regained his sanity, and that's when the music started to suffer. John Stamos was their drummer, for instance.
However, if Brian Wilson still wrote songs in his sandbox and never severed his ties to cult leader/convicted murderer/folk singer Manson, he probably would have been a prime choice for collaboration with Animal Collective, whose new album, Feels, recalls Wilson at the height of his insanity.
Feels retains many of the same sonic stylings that made Animal Collective's previous release, Sung Tongs, the critics' darlings of 2004. Feels, however, shows the band has reached maturity. The songs are more filled out and sounds much more lush, as the band strays away from folk duets with Avey Tare and Panda Bear. Whereas some of the band's older work was more whimsical, Feels is more introspective and somber.
Animal Collective's music is psychedelic — meaning these people sound like they do a lot of drugs. Its sounds are dense, and the melodies often are hidden beneath tribal drumming and instrumental experimentation.
Despite everything, Animal Collective is surprisingly unpretentious. There's no elaborate back story to the band. It's composed a couple of friends living in Brooklyn who wanted to make something new. Their peers, like post-rock band Black Dice, have had a tendency to be far too serious with their work, but Animal Collective has a pure, child-like quality throughout not only its previous work, but Feels as well. It almost seems as if the band's frontman is eight years old.
The album opens with "Did You See the Words," one of the most accessible songs on the album. The song starts with the gentle tapping of drumsticks, guitar work and Tare's soft voice but builds into a triumphant celebration of love and affection.
"The Purple Bottle" stands out with its tribal drums and vocal nonsense that makes up a large part of the melody. Although other songs, such as "Banshee Beat," share this formula, none reach the effect it has here, where a variety of sounds lie beneath something far more beautiful and dreamy.
"Turn into Something," the final song on the album, is Animal Collective's finest pop song on Feels. It sounds as though the song is being sung while Tare is running home, with the tempo rollicking for the first half of the song but dropping out into a psychedelic collection of guitar, piano, siren-like cries and animal noises. The sound is similar to the opening track, but its pace is refreshing after the slower, more experimental songs that precede it on the album.
The band is almost like a stripper, showing something you want but not giving you more until you've waited long enough, or skipped through the CD.
Animal Collective's latest release will be a godsend to fans of the freak-folk movement, but its spastic, psychedelic sounds are unlikely to pick up new listeners. The music often is exhausting to listen to, but it's understandable why there's a considerable amount of hype for a band like this, because the music is simply beautiful.
More Oct. 25, 2005 Arts Stories
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