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Animal Collective Ends Prolific Decade on a High Note With EP |
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Written by MAX BLAU
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Sunday, 27 December 2009 |
In their first release since Merriweather Post Pavilion, Animal Collective continues to progress in their everlasting attempts to discover new, uncharted territories of music. This time around, Fall Be Kind highlights Animal Collective’s focus on the ethereal and ambient. Fall Be Kind opens with “Graze”—a surreal synth-laden journey that bursts into a pristine flute-filled jig reminiscent of a Paul Simon track circa Graceland. As this song introduces listeners to this EP, it feels less like a definitive song with distinct boundaries and structure, and more of a sonic journey where the sound textures move with the listener as they span the course of Fall Be Kind.
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Animal Collective
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"Fall Be Kind EP"
(Domino)
Released December 15, 2009
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As “Graze” ends, “What Would I Want? Sky” fades into a trancelike tone similar to The Flaming Lips’ more psychedelic work. Around the halfway mark of this seven minute epic, the song shifts as singer Avey Tare blends styles like a chameleon, taking on a 21st century rendition of the organic earthiness embedded within the Grateful Dead’s sound. As the song samples from the Dead’s “Unbroken Chain,” it further marks another example of Animal Collective’s persistent convergence of experimental and conventional—Avey Tare is at his most accessible, and this continues to remain a good thing through this point in his career.
The remainder of Fall Be Kind features various combinations of ambient and rhythmic qualities, as the sonic haze of the group’s work hangs over the entirety of the EP. Between the impending and ominous “Bleed,” the dreamy “On a Highway,” and the reverb-heavy syncopated “I Think I Can,” Animal Collective ends the decade with a reminder of their prolific decade in indie-experimental rock, and a hope for their promise in the years ahead of us.
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