The first time this reviewer heard "Bees," he wrote it off as being more a convenient aural mass than a song - an eminently skippable placeholder not unlike Sung Tongs' "Visiting Friends." He was pleased, however, when, at approximately halfway in, the song's beatific chant more than justifies its inclusion. Regrettably, the promisingly litigable "Daffy Duck" steps in for the same role, and takes up five more minutes in doing so. Before that can happen, however, "Banshee Beat" ensures that the Collective will load the drum machine back up for the Feels tour but, blessedly, avoids the screeches promised by both the track's title and freak-folk's "freer" element. Among the album's closers, "Loch Raven" wishes fervently that Aphex Twin had written it, while "Turn Into Something" may as well be the good bits from all the previous tracks, all played at once. It's catchy.
So what's happened to Animal Collective to make them so (relatively) well-behaved? Not held to the earthy acoustics of 2003's Campfire Songs or the melodic folk wisdom of Vashti Bunyan, the band's recent collaboratrix for the Prospect Hummer EP, the boys should be free to run around a bit. Maybe it was bringing sometime-Collectivists Geologist and Deaken to the studio, but from seeing their live show as a four-piece in April, I detected no sort of sedative influence whatsoever. Whatever happened, Animal Collective have produced this record under the shadow of Sung Tongs. It's certainly at its most widely listenable in the first few tracks, but the entire album bears the sheen of a band who know what they're trying to do. Frontloaded or not, and for better or worse, they did it.
Reviewed by Dan Ray
This review is also posted on The Modern Pea Pod.
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