So where to start reviewing one of the most talked about indie albums in recent memory? Well, firstly this is my first Animal Collective album, having only previously heard a couple of singles some years ago, giving them little attention. However, given the buzz around this album and the strength of single ‘My Girls‘, I decided to give this one a listen.
The band are without their guitarist for this album, leaving synthesisers and samples to fill out melodies, backed up by surprisingly heavy, thumping bass lines. The band create some really large soundscapes, usually based around a simple arpeggio, then expanded on and surrounded by lots of dreamy delay effects and noises. These beautifully compliment the lyrics of the album, which are refreshingly grown up, a celebration of the simple pleasures of life and love. It’s often touching stuff, as anyone who has heard ‘My Girls‘ will probably agree, and the albums highest points come from some of the genuinely magical descriptions of seemingly mundane things. ‘Daily Routine‘ succeeds in making something as simple as walking kids to school sound like the most joyous event, and ‘Taste‘, with it’s refrain of “Am I really all the things that are outside of me?” is wonderful. Something about the earnestness and charming simplicity of the songs can’t help but raise a smile in me, and there is a real optimism and happiness throughout the album.
However, I found that the album sometimes relied on the same formula of arpeggios and layers of delay a little too much, and by mid point ‘Bluish‘ my attention has usually waned a little bit as a result of this, picking back up again with ‘Taste‘. Generally though, the quality of most of the songs on here cannot be doubted, and although it’s occasional formulaic songs sometimes turned me off, it’s certainly well worth a listen and I think most music fans will find much to enjoy here
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