If you're kind of thrown off I'm at a doctors appointment right now, I have to go under the knife for "a small procedure." That's why I have these drabs on and these tubes connected to me. Unfortunately I totally forgot that I promised Noah that I'd do this review of *Animal Collective's new album Painting With:*
I guess I'll just write a review while I'm waiting for the surgery room to be prepped to calm my nerves.
Painting With is one of the most super chocolaty awesome, fudge filled, super, albums that I've ever listened to, and it's definitely the most creative, fun, and creative album of 2016 so far. I really enjoyed the albums opener Floridada, because it sounds like the Beach Boys on acid, and that's cool; because acid is cool. It somehow manages to mix this witches brew of synth noise, surfer rock, and dissonance really well, and I thought it was a great single. Also my favorite part of the song is when they have the "Wipe-out" sample because they do this cool thing where they stop it right at the syllable after the laugh where it says "wipe out," and start their lyrics from there. I think that's a genuinely cool moment, but admittedly it didn't even stand up to the albums OTHER great wiggles they roomed their creative liberties into.
Wiggle rooms like in track two, Hocus Pocus, with the cute and super zany awesome "dinosaurs on the freeway" sample! I especially liked the fart synthesizers that were used in the track because they literally didn't sound like someone was shitting in my ear.
Or how they use their chopped voices as an unbeaten alive and well horse to drive the syncopated rhythms for most of the songs on the album.
The other thing that I think is cool is that tracks 3-10 meld into this sanity stabilizing listening experience. They're all so unique and separable that they somehow feel like one giant super track. You know because a bunch of different random noises and sounds next to each other don't just make a collage of random noises and sounds, no! And this is especially true when those sounds are mostly comprised of crushed hyper-sour synths, bit-salad, and the repetitive pounding of vocoder vocals. These are tracks like Vertical with it's synth that pokes and prods the listener...with joy! All whilst unlocking grand universal secrets like, "vertical is flight."
Or Burglars, which...wait, I actually I want to take this time to be super real cause I think that this song is shedding some light on Noah Lennox's (Panda Bear) or David Portner's estranged childhood...
When I was young we used to put alarms on our doors and screens like a burglar net
now that I’m older I’m sure that’s absurd that’s the word for the man who collects who’s he stealing from next
When I was young my parents yelled beware of the ivory man that will steal and sell
now that I’m older those words are still pure not the look of a crook in his books what’s he taking from you?
Jesus Christ is this what's explaining all this shit? Did one of them just get so politically scared and disoriented shitless by their parents to the point where it...it HELPED make them into the creative geniuses that we have today that bless us with organized and non-convoluted metaphor--did I mention you totally don't have to be pedantic to fully understand it?
And then I was so amazed by the rest of the tracks up until Golden Gal because they made me really comfortable. I normally don't listen to music for pleasure, and I don't like having an eclectic taste because using the same gimmicks over and over, and calling it "experimentation" is really what music should be about. Music isn't something I center my life around so I like putting myself in situations where I'm listening to things that not only challenge my taste, but also my sanity. When you use synths and vocoders that sound like masterpieces such as OMFG's Hello you just simply can't fucking go wrong, not one little fucking bit.
Golden Gal was alright, compared to the rest.
Recycling, the last track, well it basically sums up what I want to do with this album...play it over and over and over again, recycling it forever.
"Emanuel, the doctors have the room prepped for you, do you think you're ready?"
"Oh, okay. Uh yeah, I think so."
"Okay we'll wheel you out now then."
Yeah, it was a great album I guess. No complaints from my end. If you're into music that's indie and experimental or out or whatever your journey ends here. Don't listen to Sufjan Stevens, or Shabazz Palaces. Don't listen to Dirty Projectors, clipping, or Flying Lotus. Oh And don't you dare listen to Gold Panda. None of these artists exhibit what this album tries and does tenaciously and therefore can never live up to it.
"Emanuel we're going to give you the anesthesia now, we're just going to put this mask on you here...there we go."
So there you have it, what can I say, Animal collective's new album is a masterpiece...a truly great, great...
"Okay team this is a bit of an archaic surgery we're doing here," the dull image of the doctor nervously motioned the other surgeons at the table, "a full frontal lobotomy isn't a typical procedure
nowadays, but we really didn't have many other options, and this was a drastically necessary case."
Animal Collective Painting With: 2/10
I think it album art is cool!
Least Favorite Tracks: Hocus Pocus, Vertical, Lying in the Grass, Burglars, Natural Selection, Bagels in Kiev, On Delay, Spilling Guts, Summing the Wretch, Recycling
Favorite Tracks: Floridada (I actually like this one, I think it's cool, my compliments in the review of it were sincere, and a bit satirical)
Oh I edited this post because I was an idiot (Bidiot) and mistook Noah Lennox (Panda Bear) for Gold Panda so I fixed that. This album clearly disappointed me. I like Animal Collective I just really was looking forward to the promise that Floridada brought as a single, but then the album wasn't really anything like that, so it just bummed me out, annoyed me, and I had to turn it off just so I could chunk my listening--tracks 3 to 10 is honestly maddening at times. It's just a hodge podge, and not the good type.
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