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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Emotions, May 15, 2008
I digested three of Animal Collective's EPs all at once, (Peacebone, People & Water Curses) having grown not bored but tired with all of their albums. I was surprised to find that arguably some of their strongest material shows up on People and Water Curses. It seems logical to expect that tracks that fail to make it on the album are weaker than the rest, but they maintain incredible range and creativity in these extra songs.
Water Curses is nearly 20 minutes of sound effects and synthesizers that run the gambit of human emotion, from unbridled joy to nocturnal alienation and everything in between. Their strong suit has always been their incredible ear for melody and Water Curses has this in spades. Avey's singing accelerates, escalates, darts between playful and adamant and explodes forth only to slowly pull back like a low tide.
After I got over my initial habit of listening to Water Curses 12 times in a row and calling it a day (haha), I found that I actually prefer the whimsical circular conversation that takes place in Street Flash ("I'm so sorry I came in late this evening, but all the clocks around the town had died and all the fruit store's colors were so bright, with couples smiling, cooking things tonight. And what were all those troubles on my mind?"). Street Flash and the clicking metronome and eventual refrain of Cobwebs bursting forth like a Hallelujah choir are the strong points of this little collection.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wanna be like water, May 9, 2008
Imagine a space party under a river -- if that sounds appealing, then the Animal Collective's latest might be to your taste.
This New York experimental-pop band seem to be embracing a more poppy sound in the "Water Curses" EP, along with bubbling samples and a distinctly Beateslesque vocal style. I have no idea where this new style will take them, but they pretty clearly aren't running out of inspiration anytime soon.
It opens with a growling guitar, a ripple of bubbling water... and rapidly blossoms into the colourful, rippling sounds of the title track, punctuated by swaths of spacey synth. The murmured lyrics are just as watery: "I want to be like water/and never need a doctor/and carve the earth without my tools... I want to be like water and slip into your throat/and make you feel alive and good."
Once the twitters and bubbles of that song have faded out, we get the meditative spaciness of "Street Flash," which sounds like the Beatles stayed up all night in the woods, complete with feral roars. "Cobwebs" sounds even spacier, a meandering and trippy little song that just sort of floats away into the stratosphere as Avey Tare pronounces, "I'm not goin' underground!" over and over. If you say so.
And then more bubbles. And wind. And hammering. And what sounds like whistling. And a piano.
Having completely confused me about the sound of "Seal Eyeing," the Animal Collective slips into a gentle, ethereal little song that just sort of floats around in a haze of piano, eerie synth and odd sound effects. Avey Tare's voice voice wafts through it like a wistful ghost, even as the melody becomes more cluttered with odd strings.
I have to admit, my adoration of Animal Collective tends to fade between their various albums and EPs. Then whenever they turn out something new, that frothing adulation comes rushing back -- and "Water Curses" reminds me of why I do. It sounds quite different from their past albums while still retaining that catchy chaos they do so well.
It takes a lot of the more ethereal moments of "Strawberry Jam" and gives them a fluid feeling -- there's a lot of clear guitars tangled around with clattery drums and weird windy synth, some odd shaky percussion, and a piano that ripples through the last song like a new spring. These are further embellished with a wealth of odd sound effects -- handclaps, what sounds like a bottle being tapped, endless bubbling noises, birdsong, flutters, squeaks, and other noises.
Avey Tare's voice is not terribly impressive most of the time, but he is able to wind it down into a eerie, almost ghostly sound, or back up into a jolly woodland party-boy. The sheer weirdness of these lyrics is enough to stagger you, but at least it fits the music ("The left skies poems about poisonous berries/out of the fire of nature burning up your sheet/you know I only sting so/that I feel alive...").
"Water Curses" reminds me why I adore the Animal Collective, and unveils a liquid new sound for their unique experimental rock sound. Definitely worth hearing.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Between Strawberry Jam and MPP, April 22, 2009
With the "Water Curses", Animal Collective brings us four new, memorable, beautiful songs that all likely rank among their most expressive and catchy compositions. The instrumentation consists of the same shimmering, synthesized, chorused, flanged sorts of sounds found on their latest "Merriweather Post Pavilion", but the songs are much sparser, more spacious, less laden with harmonies. The water theme that began here seems to have been continued on that album... the whole feels fresh and alive. This EP would be the perfect next purchase for fans who've just gotten into Animal Collective with that album.
The songs themselves are pleasantly diverse. "Water Curses" is a classic sugar high Animal Collective singalong in the grand tradition of "Who Could Win a Rabbit?" or "Grass", complete with hyper-speed Avey Tare lyrics and odd rhythms.
"Street Flash" is a longer, more minimal song dominated by soft processed piano chords echoing in rhythm. The song seems content to just hang there in its blissed out sunshine space for its 6 minute duration, but Panda Bear's lyrics and vocal melody are beautiful. When I first heard the piercing scream that punctuates the end of many of the lines, I thought it didn't fit, but now it belongs in some strange way. Panda Bear sings of 'inside fever', something we've all experienced... The song ends, "and what were all those troubles on my mind? Oh, I took a walk..." Classic Animal Collective optimism. Experimental music so often falls on the darker end of the spectrum, it's nice to see this sort of feeling in a group who sounds like this.
"Cobwebs" is the most ambitious song on the album, progressing through a series of sections and ending with a dramatic wall of noise we haven't heard the likes of which since "Feels".
"Seal Eyeing" is one of the most relaxing, beautiful songs I know of. Three minutes of dreamy piano and Panda crooning "swim in sunshine..."
In conclusion, this is a great little EP. Psychedelic pop of the highest order, and their most accessible release aside from their newest "Merriweather Post Pavilion". If these are really "Strawberry Jam", they're better than many of the tracks from that album. 5 stars.
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