Animal Collective are a peculiar act. An oddity. A sensory sideshow in a world of increasing musical banality. Despite having nick-names reminiscent of a group of children's show super heroes, (Avey Tare, Deakin, Geologist & Panda Bear respectively), Animal Collective have been creating mature Psyche-folk since the turn of the millennium, and while enchanting Club and Festival-goers alike, have constantly been just avant-garde enough to allude any major commercial success. However, 2009 seems to be something of an oddity also, seeing Animal Collective gain a top 20 album on both sides of the Atlantic following the release of Merriweather Post Pavilion. Yet to understand the gravitas Animal Collective yield, we must exhaustively examine the back-catalogue to find the song that epitomizes the Animal Collective 'sound'. Such an accolade must be presented to Grass, from 2005's Feels.
An awkwardly infectious Psyche-pop operation, Grass itself sounds, in equal parts, like 'Mr. Blue Sky' by E.L.O, the entire Bjork back-catalogue & an Alan Lomax field recording, and whilst utilising the both analogue & digital synths along side more conventional instruments, Animal Collective never fail to sound anything other than fresh and organic, almost embryonic in some cases. Grass, being the most obvious example of the band's tendency toward antagonistic dynamics, sounds hurried and anxious, the constant battle between cacophony and melody never truly Passive Voice (consider revising).
Grass warrants between half a dozen and a score's worth of listens before the dense layering of electronic noise starts to extrude itself, leading way to moments of unmistakable beauty and undulating vigour, as opposed to the abstract indulgence conveyed upon the first few listens. Despite the charging nature of Grass, they delicately weave themselves between intimacy & animosity, Avey's precariously uncertain warbling parenthesized by his affection for guttural screaming. This constant interplay becomes extremely hypnotic, absorbing even the most jaded listener into the oddly colourful, richly textured, Animal Collective world.
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