Animal Collective just released their latest EP, Fall Be Kind. The cohesive 5-song collection speaks to the continuing progression of the group’s sound. Sound effects shimmer throughout the EP and the echoing of Animal Collective’s characteristic otherworldly and layered vocals transport the listener into fantastical realms. This is just what I’ve come to expect from this band. I desire to live in their dream world.

“Graze” begins as a hash-induced lullaby, “Let me begin, feels good ’cause it’s early… some ideas are brewing”, floating into a jubliant swirling of pan flutes. The chorus lures an emphatic sing-a-long. And the end is just mesmerizing as it fades.

I am most infatuated with the stream of consciousness, ethereal vibe of “What Would I Want? Sky”. One is immediately lost in a cloud of thought. Avey Tare’s vocals float above a Grateful Dead sample from “Unbroken Chain” (off Grateful Dead From The Mars Hotel, 1974), widely known as the first ever to be licensed. A clip of Phil Lesh’s vocals “…sky. Whoa I oft-” is looped and somehow reshaped into the title phrase. What results is a gorgeous feat. Near the end of the track, Avey sings “I should be floating but I’m weighted by thinking”, encompassing what Animal Collective has always been about. Ironically, the band coaxes you out of thought and into visceral feeling. Their music is a way for the intelligent mind to let go of anxiety and wrap itself in the complexity of sound instead.

“Bleedings” is not my favorite, but its darkness is beautiful nonetheless.

“On A Highway” follows Avey on another daydream as he travels down the road while the band tours. Singing “I let some hash relax me, get lost in human pleasure,” you can just imagine the feelings he is experiencing in that vehicle. Meditative lyrics and colorful imagery drive the song through a continuous flow of thought. Avey is yet again beset with an racing mind as he sings “…can’t help my brain from thinking. I can’t breathe.”

On the closer, “I Think I Can”, Panda Bear lets loose with jarring rhythms, claps, and array of synthesized samples. It starts out rather eerie but ends up soaring into one of my favorites songs on the EP.

With the Fall Be Kind EP, Panda Bear’s, Avey Tare’s, and Geologist’s brilliance is exposed once again. On the tail of their January 2009 release of the widely acclaimed Merriweather Post Pavilion, this new EP is noticeably less hooky, but no matter as it wraps me up further in Animal Collective and makes me wonder what we’ll hear next. This band perfectly pleases the mind by making a cacophony of sounds sound concordant.

Animal Collective, formed in Baltimore, MD, recently transplanted to NYC….

mp3: Animal Collective – Graze
mp3: Animal Collective – I Think I Can
mp3: Animal Collective – What Would I Want? Sky

“What would I want? Sky!”
Is everything alright?
You feeling moany?
You feeling lonely?
You’re not the only

Is everything alright?
You feeling stormy?
You feeling phoney?
You’re not the only

Do you get up up up?
Clouds stop and move above me
Too bad they can’t help me
What is the right way?

Do I float up up up?
When I stop and look around me
Grey is where that color should be
What is the right way?

Old glasses clinking and a
New order’s blinking
and I -
I should be floating but I’m weighted by thinking

That I got on the river
Really can’t make you change
And the sky gets filled up too fast
and the taxi man’s saying, “You betta
give me some money; stop daydreaming, dude!”
When the point of horizon is hiding from you
What would you want sky?

Are you taking it lightly?
Lost in the flurries
You start to worry
You will be buried
Taking it lightly
and so I hurry
I start to worry
Here come them flurries

Is everything alright?
You feeling lonely?
You feeling moldy?
You’re not the only

Is everything alright?
You feeling stormy?
You feeling foamy?
You’re not the only

Do you get up up up?
Clouds stop and move above me
Too bad they can’t help me
What is the right way?

Do I float up up up?
When I stop and look around me
Grey is where that color should be
What is the right way?

Old glasses clinking and a
New order’s blinking and I -
I should be floating but I’m weighted by thinking

I’m a fly on the river
That’ll make me some change
When the sky gets filled up too fast
and the taxi cab’s waiting, “You betta
give him some money;
stop daydreaming, dude!”
When the point of horizon is hiding its blues
What would you want sky?

What would I want? Sky!
What would I want? Sky!

Website | MySpace

Download through Amazon: Fall Be Kind EP

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 8th, 2009 at 10:17 pm and is filed under Album Reviews, Featured Bands, Indie, Songs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.