Released: May 2012
Label: Domino Records
Since the release of the
outstanding Merriweather Post Pavilion way back in 2009, Animal Collective
released a couple songs and EPs sporadically, with some solo projects formed
too. Panda Bear’s Tomboy was a big success with most people who checked it out,
and it received pretty high spots on their best of 2011 lists too. It didn’t
come across to well with me however, it sounded a little synthetic for me, as
if not enough elements were added to the mix to beef it out a bit, though I
could see why so many people were favourable to it.
Now Animal Collective
returns with two new tracks, Honeycomb and Gotham.
Both feature the Beach Boys sounds Panda Bear was trying to ultilise, but the
production is lot better here. Honeycomb is quite possibly the sunniest song
this year, with its infectious percussion/samples, and Battles’ Ice
Cream-styled vocal delivery. It’s a spaced out, crazy listen at first, but
quickly the listener should let their guard down and begin to just enjoy the
fun that erupts from it. It’s wonderful.
Gotham however is more of a grower rather than an instant
hit. It’s slow paced tempo, complete with dragged out vocals and progressive
drums stops any motion from going somewhere. There are some pauses included as
well that seemingly come at the wrong time, making this is a real hard listen
at first.
However, the listener
should begin to appreciate the atmosphere with a couple more listens. Gotham suddenly becomes a very spacious, open soundscape
where everything happens all around the listener, and they have to look for it
rather than have it right in front of them. It’s certainly an interesting
listen at least, and I hope it ends up on Animal Collective’s next album,
should they decide to release one soon (plz do).
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