Animal Collective: Grass (Paw tracks)
Tribal freak-folk pop/rock. EP featuring single from Feels. Awesome tribal rock songs. Sing-song pop, but still crazy + dark. Not quite folk, but definitely aspires for the primitive; excellent/complex song structures keep the shrieks + distorted vox reined in; a lot more structured + coherent than Hollindigan, but with similar moments of violence; more radio friendly than AC’s early stuff; darker + sadder + more frantic than Feels and Sung Tongs. Play #1, 3, and maybe 2 in a weird set as an interlude. No FCCs that I (or presumably any listeners) can hear.
1) 2:58 – single from Feels. reverby rock guitar. Ethereal synth. Tribal-bop drums. Rock/pop song w/ world vibe. Falsetto, doubled vocals. Sing-song, sweet melody. Loud, percussive, shrieking chorus. Fast pace, desperate feel, but still a little happy. Samples of birds. Beach boys harmonies. Kinda hits you hard, and leaves you wondering what just happened. Most straightforward song on this EP.
2) 3:14 –long, soft interlude track. starts with ‘warning’ siren loop/pulse for first 0:53ish seconds (which continues until halfway through song). Creepy alien vox then enters with gentle piano and odd percussion. Samples from old TV ad for muffins. Unsettling, but warm. Sounds like you’ve been abducted by aliens, but you’re somehow safe from the ones that want to eat you (whom you can hear growling in the background).
3) 4:28 – swift + primitive percussion. Rattling, vibrato guitar (think “Turn Into Something” from Feels). Almost rap-like chanting vox, with background song-bird-like harmony. Quick transition to awesome chorus, with weird swellings. Singing melts into melodic howling. Bacchanal fury…kinda dark, with unsettling ethereal background vox. Sudden transition to sick bridge with soft vox repose (“I wonder wonder wonder wonder….”) and same beautifully neurotic guitar. After resting your head on a pillow, chorus then proceeds to kick your face in with loud chanting + percussion, like some sort of pagan sacrifice. Loud buzz at end. This feels like a painstakingly engineered collage of song fragments.