20 Watts

Animal Collective deliver once again with their latest EP Fall Be Kind

PREVIEW: VISIT Animal Collective’s MySpace
WE GIVE IT: 17/20 Watts

Met with the tough task of following up one of the year’s best albums, Merriweather Post Pavillion, Animal Collective’s Fall Be Kind had to deliver big.  Lucky for us, the band that continues to rise to, and set the bar for the challenges of today’s music scene, was up for the assignment.

Fall Be Kind is everything Merriweather Post Pavillion is not. It’s raw, unstructured and loose. The tame pop conventions are gone, and in their place dance wild and schizophrenic sonic experiments in the mold of the band’s earlier material. Instead of aiming to recreate the sound of their hit album from January, Animal Collective remade their old sound in their new, more electronically-altered image.

Powered by looping samples, and catchy, chanting repetition, the EP’s tracks shift gears constantly from high to low energy. Songs like “Graze” and “I Think I Can” are some of the most intriguing, trippy arrangements the band has put together in awhile, and the constant tempo shift leaves listeners comfortably off-guard.

And then there’s “What Would I Want? Sky.” Borrowing from the Grateful Dead’s “Unbroken Chain,” the track’s initially perceived complexity gives way to a simple, continuous loop as infectious as anything they’ve every put out. It’s the perfect blend of the band’s respective styles from past and future, a juxtaposition of tribal vocals and crazed, frenzied electronic noise. By the end of the song, you’re convinced that “What Would I Want? Sky” is one of the greatest, most interesting pieces of work the group has ever put together.

Combining their more traditionally disassembled ambience with the euphoric electronic pop of their previous album, Animal Collective has once again produced a unique and sonically remarkable piece of work. Though only comprised of just five tracks, the Fall Be Kind EP makes its mark as the start of yet another chapter in the band’s increasingly-prolific career. I, for one, can’t wait to hear what’s next.

– John Cassillo