Sunday 16 September 2012

The 2kDozen 500: #312 - Animal Collective, "Centipede Hz"

Listening to Grizzly Bear, I realised I hadn't listened to Animal Collective's album yet. That's how slick I roll, you understand.

"Moonjock" is a joyful, gibberish-y burst as you'd maybe expect. There are some space beeps as well, which are always a treat. It's all electronic and explosive and drifts from one track to the next in an ambient soup. The joyful yelps are all there. "Rosie Oh" is relating a story of something or other with a sea reggae feel or something. With squelches. There's that same Beach Boys-kind of joyfulness spreading underneath the music, warm and wet. Is music that's based on certainty or built up to cover the void of certainty's absence? It sounds very optimistic, but then so did The Beach Boys and there was something dark yawning open in the middle of that.


There is a woman at the centre of "Wide Eyed" as well. There are also goose noises. Or noises that sound like goose noises. "Father Time" sounds high Eighties like Howard Jones or something; not that I'm only hearing Eighties here. I seem to hear Eighties everywhere. "When I'm naked/Back home/Take my shoes off/Take my coat off" begins "New Town Burnout" and the music gives me the images of camels necking their way across the desert. Which sounds neither very Baltimore nor very Brooklyn. There are some cheap chiming sounds that bridge over into "Monkey Riches". The vocals go a bit Black Francis towards the end - maybe Americans always scream lyrics about monkeys, I dunno...


"Mercury Man" begins with bending noise and cheap electronics. "You always feel like mercury," he sings. Does that mean like poisonous? He has a rather accusatory tone. "Amanita" sounds a bit bassoony with Hounds of Love whoa oh oh's and lyrics about "misplaced futures" and "fantasy falling down" and missing storytellers.

"What are you gonna do out in the forest/I'm gonna out and remember my name/..I'm gonna bring back some stories and games."

Rating: Warm Spread out of Joyful Gibberish

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