Customer Reviews

Feels (Dig)

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Folk jazz. Psychedelic prog. Experimental indie.

Animal Collective uses all those sounds (and more) in their seventh album, the freakily beautiful "Feels." With pop melodies that are never catchy and instrumentation that is never ordinary, they manage to weave together songs that break away creatively from their past work.

It opens with a delicate burbling noise, somewhere between laughter and a brook. From there on, the Collective takes it into a bouncy, merry indiepop number called "Did You See the Words." Not only is it fun to listen to, but it's decorated with bells, piano and a chorus of happy voices.

From there on, they follow it up with the mad sparkle of "Grass," shimmering indie ballads, acoustic dance music, wandering experimental collages, and tight little dark indie-rock numbers that are as strippd down as this band will ever. The highlight of the entire album is "Bees," a delicate post-rock exercise in strumming, piano, and meditating on... life and bees.

One of the biggest problems a band can have is trying out new sounds, without abandoning the old. In "Feels," the Animal Collective has dropped some of the sonic trappings of their previous album, in favour of more straightforward melodies. Of course, "straightforward" is relative -- many of the songs still drift through in clouds of sweetness.

It's kind of hard to pick apart these melodies, and figure out what instruments were used to create them. I can tell you this much: There's sweeping delicate synth, some great piano work, solid drums, and an off-kilter autoharp. There is an occasional drone of guitar riffs, but mostly they stick to the gentler acoustic stuff, which gives it a folky edge.

Avey Tare's voice swims through the music like a psychedelic duck. He doesn't sound like a singer so much as another instrument. He takes the listener through giddiness to depression, and finally to the enlightenment of how to be happy -- the last song just shimmers down into a piano solo, and fades.

Bold, bright and charming, "Feels" is another triumph for the Animal Collective. And it's recommended for anyone who needs to get into a sunny mood, fast.

Although I didn't love the Animal Collective the first time that I heard them, they were one of those groups that burrowed their way into my very consciousness with their sort of primal, almost tribal folk musings. It didn't matter that their vocals were nonsensical and/or indecipherable, or that they would occasionally lapse into extended trips that are probably meant to be enjoyed (more) with mind-altering substances, they seemed to capture many of those intangibles that make me love music outright. As time has progressed, the group has seemingly gotten better with each release, and their Sung Tongs release was my favorite album of last year.

Needless to say, I was ready to approach Feels with a bit of trepidation, as I do with any release by a group that follows something that I consider downright essential. In my many years of listening to music, I've been let down far too many times after expecting follow-up releases to always best their great predecessor. Whereas Sung Tongs was mainly the work of two musicians, Feels finds Animal Collective joined by more of their regular members and the resulting sound is more expansive as well.

In fact, Feels is easily the most melodic and dense work from the group yet. If their previous album was the result of the group taking acoustic instrumentation to odd realms, then this newest effort finds them doing that and then some, bring in electric guitars, a great use of piano, more effects, and of course a whole slew of vocal melodies. One could argue that it's the most melodic work from the group yet, and it gets going from the start with "Did You See The Words." Starting quietly, the track layers some tinkling piano melodies and strummy reverbed guitar chords before the vocals burst forth and a rhythm sets the track in motion. As the track progresses, it continues to build steam, with percussion getting louder, vocal melodies and harmonies getting more complex, and full-on washes of sound layering on top of one another. "Grass" follows, and it's even more triumphant as shimmering electronics blend with pounding drums and shimmery guitars while the vocals start out almost Beach Boys style before rupturing into yelling, explosive sections that turn the track into a cathartic freakout that you can't help but want to scream along with.

From there, the group takes things down a notch with the spacey "Flesh Canoe" before launching into "The Purple Bottle," which is easily a contender for my favorite song of the entire year. Bursting out of the gate with raucous drums, hilarious sing-along vocals (that seem to perfectly capture the giddy and weird beginnings of a relationship) and hazy guitar jangling, the track morphs several times during its almost seven minute running length and never seems to run out of ideas or get saggy in the slightest bit. By the time the group reaches the closing section (which blends dense washes of gorgeous melodies with sharp punctuated bursts) and finally winds down, you feel like skipping straight back to the beginning to hear it all over again. From there out, the album drifts off into more heady material that isn't always quite as invigorating, but at the very least it's still more melodic and textural than past work the group has done.

"Banshee Beat" (which is perhaps a bit of misnomer given the musical content of the track) floats along on beautiful layers of guitar, processed sound and some subtle drumming and vocals, and while it never gets much louder than a slightly-quickened heartbeat, it works like a charm. At almost eight minutes, "Daffy Duck" is the only track on the disc that really lacks any sort of tension or wonderment (it has nice moments, but nothing that hasn't been achieved in greater effect on other tracks). The release closes with the wondrous "Turn Into Something" and the rollicking piece alternately strums and soars, layering dense washes of sounds and even more playful vocal melodies. So, despite one slightly soft spot, Feels is yet another album on which the Animal Collective changes their sound even further and succeeds on just about every attempt. A glorious, noisy, melodic, celebratory release from the ever-inventive group.

(from almost cool music reviews)

I've read a lot of the reviews on here, and read the ones where 2 stars or less were given, and I can understand why some people will get frustrated with the overwhelming love for this album that lots of people have. Animal Collective don't bother with following song structure (or any structure, for that matter) in the traditional sense.

But aside from the reasons why you'd be driven away, it's arguably the most accessible album of Animal Collective's to date. They're keeping close to their own sound while expanding the number of people they can reach to through the music. There's also much more song structure and much less craziness, which was the case with most of the pre-Sung Tongs albums.

Did You See The Words - I love the way this song builds in the beginning. Up until the cymbal crash and explosion of vocals at about a minute 3 seconds in, you can't hear the beat that Avey Tare is obviously singing to. The song keeps building on top of it's own momentum, making a stronger and stronger sound, until about 2 and a half minutes in, Avey Tare breaks the momentum, and the song steps back a bit. At about 3 minutes, the second part of this song starts...lyrics about taking your shoes off and bringing back babies from the hospital...then the vocals go into ooh's and oh's, merging with tinkling piano, which makes for a strangely beautiful sound.

Grass - Arguably the best song on the album. The way the beginning note (A# I believe) is held until Avey Tare starts singing gets me excited every time. The way Avey sings in this song almost sounds like he's sneaking around, until he starts the chorus, where it's all yelling POW POW NOW NOW along with a back beat (which is one of the best parts of this song). I don't think the length of this song could be any better. Short and sweet. The music is great...the way the chords are played remind me of old timey western piano that's often heard played in bars and saloons.

Flesh Canoe - Past the obvious sexual innuendo, this song is beautiful in it's own little way. Personally, I enjoy the way this song is played acoustically, live, better, but this song is still great. The backing "ooh" behind Avey's soft singing...the way there's no drumbeat in this song, yet there's still a beat somewhat...the piano playing...all good stuff. Good song, but not one of the strongpoints of this album.

The Purple Bottle - This is probably my favorite song off the album. The tribal-esque beat along with the strained singing of the lyrics makes this fast-paced song sound extra packed with adrenaline. The "Hallelujah!" during what could be called the chorus seems a bit misplaced, but still fits somehow. Some people might run from the length of this song combined with the "A.D.D." quality it brings, having three very different sounding parts to the song. But overall, fantastic song.

Bees - It took me a while to get used to this song...but I learned to love it. I'm not even sure what kind of instrument is being played throughout the song...it sounds like they're strumming the guitar strings behind the nut. Anyway, the song is awesome. I love the various tinklings of piano, bits of heavily reverb-ed backing vocals, and soft cello. Beautiful song.

Banshee Beat - This song starts in a way very similiar to Did You See The Words. The guitar is randomly strummed, with Avey singing real soft and slow. Then you start hearing the click of some drumming, bringing the previously "lost" guitars into a real dreamlike beat. The song keeps building and building. About 3/4ths into the song Avey stops singing and starts going "ah-ah-ah-ah-ahyeah". An odd sound but I like it. Then the song drifts into a breakdown of "oohs" and "ahhs". Very very similiar to the first song in terms of how it's built, but still good.

Daffy Duck - My least favorite song. This song is very slow and repetitive, using many of the tehchniques already used in previous songs. This song could have been replaced by something else. Don't get me wrong. This song is beautiful sounding...it just sounds too much like a cross between Flesh Canoe and Banshee Beat.

Loch Raven - I love this song. The toyish sounding echoes of what sounds like a keyboard mixed with the whispers of Avey's voice, mixed with Panda Bear's extremely simple drumbeat make it a simple-yet-great song.

Turn Into Something - Had they ended this album in a manner similiar to the slower songs before this one, the album just would not be nearly as good. The delayed guitar in the beginning is great, playing a country-esque riff that's put into the "Animal Collective" blender. Then comes the second guitar, which sounds just as good. The way Avey Tare sings almost makes you want to join a barn dance. It's almost exaggeratingly "redneckish". The way this song ends is great too. With a mixture of instruments and vocals making a thick cloud of sound that just simply sounds beautiful. A great song to end the album with. The song could have been a bit shorter though.

I loved this album the minute I started listening to it. Some of the songs might take a little while to get used to, but overall it's a great buy, and I highly recommend it.

Pitchfork Media darlings Animal Collective have arguably created one of the weirdest, most distinctive sounds of the last decade--their stylistic collage of afro tribal chantings, bleats & yelps, ethereal electronic posturings and definatly bipolar chamber pop has finally found its truest voice on this latest release, called Feels, which is something of a from-left-field masterpiece. Get it!

I thought last year's Sung Tongs was obsessively listenable and original, at times elegiac and beautific, and at times grating and off-putting. Hidden in all the strangeness were near-perfect little pop gems like "Who Could Win A Rabbit" and "Kids on Holiday." But on this album, the group has set itself to go even farther, and create more of a (dare I say) straightforward indie rock record, that both maintains their tilted aesthetic and yet doesn't shy away from creating several blippity-blip pop numbers that are both extraordinarily effective and totally whacked.

Play this CD in the Amazom Jungle, and you may be set upon by indigenous tribal warriors looking to mate--but who could blame them. This album has an almost sick joy to it, a bewildered ecstasy, as if, when I was a kid, and I was playing those druggy 45's on my Fisher Price turntable--happy choruses singing about squares and triangles and purple monsters--I had slowed the speed down and dragged the vinyl backwards and backwards again with sweaty little fngers.

Feels has elements of Brian Wilson, Neutral Milk Hotel, and the strumming haunted shimmerings of the Icelandic electronica group Mum. Forceful and catchy anthems like "The Purple Bottle" get bored with themselves and devolve into lots of vocal maneuverings and aggressive instrumentation, which is both fun and unnerving. Songs like "Grass" and "Turn Into Something" come close to being radio-friendly, and "Bees" is loose, glorious, tunefully frothy and ambient. Songs like "Daffy Duck" are too unstructured for me and go on too long in a redundant haze, a weakness remaining from their previous work. "Loch Raven" also seems a bit lazy to me in its sleepy meanderings, but is still somewhat gorgeous. If these guys work hard, they seem to find blistering levels of achievement, but they don't always work that hard, relying more often than not on a wandering and watery production, when they could simply make their statement quick, brutal, and pretty and get out; whicn is why "If You Could Win A Rabbit" was such a standout from their previous effort. But perhaps this is just the beginning of their odd little story...

Anyway, the thing is that this album would be easy to mock if it weren't so utterly persuasive. And that's why those pretentious little playboys at Pitchfork have their wagging tongues all over this. Neutral Milk, Arcade Fire, Wolf Parade, and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! are their Gods, cause those guys are always sniffing the pavement for something new and hip, and these are all talented and daring artists scraping the outer fringes of the universe for something forbidden, new, and wonderful.

Let's hope Animal Collective really tries to lead this revolution.

The rotating cast of characters known as Animal Collective (so named to allow the members to come and go per recording) has made bold stylistic leaps with each album, from fairy tale psychedelia to freak-folk to noise. This is their "rock" album, in that it uses a traditional setup and makes oblique references to the Beach Boys and the Flaming Lips, but it still sounds like nothing else on this planet. Guitars throb, electronics shimmer, drums pound and skitter, voices shriek and warble, and yet, for all its oddness, it's still Animal Collective's most accessible outing because it retains its sense of gleeful abandon without ever descending into chaos. "Feels" is--paradoxically--ridiculously complex gut-music, and there is only one song on it ("Flesh Canoe") that I haven't listened to over 100 times just to catch all of its sneaky details. Divided in half between sweet, neo-tribal pop songs and soupy ambient pieces, "Feels" is nonetheless unified by its expressionist and hyper-colorful vision of ultimate happiness.

I'm not surprised one bit to see people turned off by this. It's not easily digested. But while some may find Animal Collective too expiramental or too "out there," I will say that they need to open up their imagination a little bit. This music takes you to another world. Whether you like that world, well, maybe that's just personal preference. But for what they do, they do very well. With "Feels" I think they found a perfect mix of soundscape, psychadelic folk, dynamics, and just enough melody to please the palatte. As for the comments by others about envisioning these guys rolling around in mud and chanting, or whatever they're saying, all music that breaks the mold, even the mold within indie music, is going to be uncomfortable to some. What do you think people said when "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea" came out (or are still saying)? Yet, most who give it a chance fall in love with it. If nothing else, give these guys credit for trying new territory. If nobody dared to do that, it'd be a sad, boring world.

these Animal Collective guys are thoroughly original and a breath of fresh air. Their music is fun, it's quirky, it can be dark, it can be intense, it can be light, it can be a lot of things... but it's always uplifting. Who cares how you classify it, classification is for schmucks and for the types of chumps who rate music using floating point numbers or throw around the term "overrated" a lot b/c they fancy themselves real smart music critic-types.

Anywho, this album rules, though I actually like Tung Songs more, but still this album totally rules. I got to see these guys live, and it was a thing of beauty. By the time they were hitting stride in their set, the entire audience was rocking out and I had a huge smile on my face.

Long live the Animal Collective, and down with the haters.

Animal Collective is a band that has been getting a lot of attention lately. Whenever I look on my Amazon recommended list one of their albums always shows up. I am glad to finally listen to the music now and experience it for myself. The last album was a project by only a few of the members of the collective. This seems to be a complete collaboration with even people from Mum and Mr. Bungle. Animal Collective seems like a very modern mix of folk music and electronic music. There is immediate dynamic sounds of the first two tracks "Did You See The Words" and "Grass." The song "Flesh Canoe" sounds like The Walkmen if they did a little more acid. This music is freaky and wild. "The Purple Bottle" is new, weird, and American. They get a little hippie on "Bees." I bet some members of this band walk around with bare feet. Animal Collective is capable of folk music that draws you in its trance. This is a must have album for sure. They are one of the classic bands of our time.

This being the first Animal Collective album I got, I was really impressed by this band. Yes, this band is quite weird, but they know how to write a song with incredible dynamics and catchy hooks.

Did You See The Words begins with a beat buried in the mix and strange keyboard drones. The song builds and builds to a beatiful climax with vocals appearing all over the place. It's a perfect way to start the album.

Grass is another keeper, with it's long drone note and strange vocals, it's a keeper when the chorus, consisting of screams and high pitched whistling, comes in. Great stuff.

Flesh Canoe is the first real "dreamy" song on the album, and reminds me of My Bloody Valentine. Very druggy.

The Purple Bottle has 3 incredible parts, a flashy, talkative intro, a weird drone section, and a long part with much yelping. By this point, the singing gets very energetic, and it sounds like a joy to listen to.

Bees is the first of the "sleepy" songs. Beginning with what sounds like a harp, it goes into piano tinkering and reverbed vocals. It's a lovely song, and I can easily fall asleep to it. Quite lovely.

Banshee Beat begins almost in the same way that Did You See The Words, but this time, the drums start clicking in a little later, and the song builds a bit slower. The ooohs and aahs of the song are well placed too.

Daffy Duck continues the path that Bees and Banshee Beat tread on, with a bit better effect than either song. A randomly plucked guitar riff begins the song, and the effects on the song are real hazy sounding. My personal favorite.

Loch Raven breaks the spell of earlier tunes with a toy keyboard and strange whispers from Avey. It's a bit simpler than the other tracks, but it's still a keeper.

Turn Into Something definetly is the 'indie' song of the album, bringing to mind some of Modest Mouse' earlier work. The delayed guitar is really nice, but what makes the song is the fast vocal work. It really makes you want to sing along.

Overall, this is a refreshing album full of unique sounds and ideas. Buy this album as soon as possible!

Listening to Animal Collective will really do something to you. Having experienced their six previous major records (five full-lengths and an EP), I can add my own spirited hurrah to that of the throngs of other fans out there. The furry foursome are celebrated for their originality, musicality, and incredible sense of fun. Each album has gone in a different direction, sometimes a drastically different one, and Feels continues in that tradition to some degree. However, more than simply exploring new territory, the group is integrating the best aspects of their earlier experimentation into a more accessible record of gorgeous and playful noise-pop.

That's not to say that they outdo themselves with this record. I'll still sink back into the acoustic bliss of Sung Tongs, Campfire Songs, and Prospect Hummer; revel in the crazed electronics of Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They've Vanished and Danse Manatee; and immerse myself in the intensely primal and achingly beautiful Here Comes The Indian. But Feels has characteristics of all these, and is just such a well-organized, uplifting album that its greatness is impossible to deny.

"Did You See The Words", "Grass", and "The Purple Bottle" are sugary, energetic romps that immediately tap into the carefree blissfulness of my childhood. "Flesh Canoe", "Bees" and "Daffy Duck" are variations on one of my favorite Animal Collective stylistic approaches: brooding, slightly melancholy meanderings that develop slowly but resound with an unspeakable pastoral beauty. "Banshee Beat" is similar to begin with, but eventually gains more momentum and energy; it's a fantastic song, but more difficult to categorize. "Loch Raven" makes me tear up every time I hear it. I think of it as Animal Collective's electronic lullaby, charming listeners into a peaceful daze before sending them off with the tumultuous "Turn Into Something".

Some fans have complained that the production on the album is too heavy, filling up every last moment of song with continual sound without any breaks, and incorporating piano into almost every track. To my, however, that's simply the texture of this album. It's not the same as Sung Tongs, true, but Sung Tongs wasn't by any means Here Comes The Indian, which in turn was no Danse Manatee. This is a progressive, evolving group of musicians, aching to explore the boundaries of music and to take their audience along for the ride.

Listen to Feels on a late afternoon drive at the end of summer, or put on headphones and watch the autumn sunset. This is music that was meant to be experienced, and I encourage anyone and everyone to do just that. Buy this album.