Animal Collective - Centipede Hz

yes

God lord this is a fascinating album. I still have 3 tracks to listen to, but they've really outdone themselves on the first 8. The electronic stuff is worked into it brilliantly. Love the production. It would be interesting to see how they go about writing their songs. There's almost nothing conventional about it. I can tell they're influenced by african music, and there's a bit of beach boys in the melodies, but I really have no idea where the brunt of their musical influence comes from. Also, they've really come along as musicians these last few years. This shit would not be easy to play tight as a band. Yep, I'm officially impressed.

It's the most disappointing release of the year.

  On 12/22/2012 at 12:29 PM, Zephyr_Nova said:

God lord this is a fascinating album. I still have 3 tracks to listen to, but they've really outdone themselves on the first 8. The electronic stuff is worked into it brilliantly. Love the production. It would be interesting to see how they go about writing their songs. There's almost nothing conventional about it.

Good observations.

First time listen = I hated it.

Second time listen = Fell in love with it.

Seriously, I listen to "indie rock" (which is not the right label but anyway) like every 3 months, but this is amazing. Their concert in Berlin was mind-bending (though the concert in 2011 was really shitty and it was at the same venue), one MPC got broken and the dude repaired it on the stage himself, while performing a lot of stuff less electronic and more with guitar. That was amazing.

The LP is so full of good stuff, that it easily, very easily gets to much. While "Merriweather" is at least as exhausting as the new one, it is not half as interesting - at least in my ears. Man, writing about this makes me wanna listen to it immediatly.

yeah, animal collective is one of the few indie rock acts I listen to nowadays. they're definitely original.

i don't think they've ever been indie rock. they've been original/uncatorgorizable since they started

this album made #4 in my albums of the year http://www.gravityhalo.com/2012/12/awkwards-top-5-albums-of-2012.html

It's my favourite album of the year, i think it's incredible. What attracts me to Animal Collective more than other bands is the lack of any dourness in their sound. Their previous albums can sound like a tribe of lost children dancing around a fire in the woods, often creating a racket, but sometimes producing the most earthly inventive pop music, whereas Centipede Hz to me is like the same tribe trapped in some virtual reality game. I've always thought because they're not a traditional band with drums and guitars, and because they're music is created from samples and electronic sounds that it means they approach music differently than any other band. I'm really amazed by some of their music, tracks like Rosie Oh and Applesauce, their vocal melodies are out of this world, I don't know how they find them. The beginning of Rosie Oh is absolutely wild.

The whole album is like one really strong melody segueing into another really strong melody. Every moment is pure gold, to me. I love the more electronic, densely packed synthetic sound in this album, it's mesmerizing. After a few listens I was addicted to it. Rosie Oh, Applesauce, Wide Eyed, Father Time is an amazing sequence of songs.

Its energy is infectious, its positivity, its excitement for music, its joy in sounds. I find it more moving than previous Animal Collective, when I first heard Today's Supernatural I thought it was vomit, now I realise it's just like nothing else. The vocal melody at 2;20 is so incredible and full of yearning. Monkey Riches is orgasmic, the bit at 4:13..and then Mercury Man ought to be the least engaging song on the album because it's just come after the highpoint of Monkey Riches, and I love it as much as anything else on there. None of their previous albums has had the kind of anguished, emotional singing as it does in its last minute. It's the same for Pulleys and Amanita. I love the silent pause at the end when the wall of sound fades out, the whole album never lets up for a second, it just becomes clear for that brief moment when it ends, and for me at least I want to dive back into its world again.

I'm seeing them at the Warehouse Project in November. I've stopped listening to it now. I will explode inside with happiness if and when they play Monkey Riches and if they play Bluish, My Girls, My Flowers. The best gig i've been to and ever will go to was Sufjan Stevens on the Age of Adz tour, stood there listening to the 25 minute Impossible Soul was about as happy as i've been, it was almost too much joy that I don't think can be topped, but songs like Amanita and Brothersport might come close.

---

It's one of my favourite albums ever. I keep telling my brother this and urge him to listen to it more. He just says 'really?'. Yes. I can't fault it, it's everything I want from music. His only remark really is, 'but how come it's not highly rated with reviewers, not on many end of year best albums lists'. I think it takes time to adjust to it's how full-on, dense, excessive and saturated with sounds it is.

I went to watch them live and it was great. There was a band on before them that looked like they'd stepped off the dance floor from The Terminator, and one looked genuinely like she was from the 80's, not just her clothes, but her face and hair and skinny frame. She was like a thundercat. When they jumped off the stage and were making all kinds of weird shapes with their bodies in front of people, I could have gone home and been content with the evening's music.

Animal Collective did a unchangeable set list, I looked online afterwards, so when at one point 5 different people were shouting out 'do For Reverend Green' it was not like they were going to oblige, as if the shout outs from this crowd were any different from the previous crowds. They started off slowly and only really got going by Applesauce. Peace Bone was great because he finally took the mic, left his keyboard and jumped around and screamed. The unchangeable set list is good if you only plan to see them once on a tour because the music doesn't stop once throughout. i dislike it when you watch band and it's like them going through the motions, from one track to the next.

Brothersport was hypnotic, I wanted to freeze the moment, the band prolong the build up to a degree that you lose yourself. They had this interlude in the middle of Pulleys that was the same, it felt like forever but was probably about 10 minutes.

"A tribe of lost children dancing around a fire in the woods" is a pretty apt description. I like that.

am i alone in liking the avey tare down there better than centipede hz?

Probably not --this album appears to be quite thoroughly disliked by many people who drooled all over other AC releases.

  On 1/1/2013 at 1:02 AM, Jimmy McMessageboard said:

am i alone in liking the avey tare down there better than centipede hz?

Not necessarily. am still undecided on centipede hz, whereas i definitely love down there.

  On 1/1/2013 at 2:14 AM, Zephyr_Nova said:

Probably not --this album appears to be quite thoroughly disliked by many people who drooled all over other AC releases.

really? i haven't seen any of that

  On 1/1/2013 at 3:15 AM, pigster said:

  On 1/1/2013 at 1:02 AM, Jimmy McMessageboard said:

am i alone in liking the avey tare down there better than centipede hz?

 

Not necessarily. am still undecided on centipede hz, whereas i definitely love down there.

so good

I wish Deakins sung on more AC songs. Wide Eyed is my favorite track on this album, mostly cause of Deakin's vocals

I actually think animal collective is very morbid and dour under the surface. So many of their songs seem to be about existential angst and losing the magic/innocence in life, struggling to find meaning, emotional instability, etc.

I never really notice their lyrics, but they usually sound pretty frantic when they sing them. Sounds kind of like a joyous panic attack.

I love this album so much, just something about it. i was never an AC fan untill this album.

Is there any other artists that a like this album?

there might be some copycats now but I can't think of anybody before it.

I agree this album holds up pretty well over time. the 1,2 of the first 2 tracks is killer

try checking out the new darkstar album. there are some very ac moments on it, done very well. awesome album.

Came back to this album recently after kinda forgetting it existed. I remember it sounding pretty harsh mix/mastering wise for some reason so was nicely surprised to come back and really get into it. Last half of the album is great.

can not wait to see what the next one will sound like. panda has been on fire imo. no deakin again this time. should be very soon