Follow-up to last year’s Sung
Tongs, Feels is once again the result
of the collaborative work of the complete Animal Collective,
with Geologist and Deakin rejoining the founding nucleus
of Avey Tare and Panda Bear for a sixth album in five
years. If Sung Tongs
appeared slightly more restrained than previous releases,
Feels sees the collective engaging on more
upfront and sharper grounds and taking on new challenges
once again.
Animal Collective have turned guitar strumming into
an art form in its own right and developed a truly unique
way to create drone-like structures to wrap their songs
in. On Feels though, the band apply richer
tones, resulting in the songs here appearing at once
lighter in structure and denser in context. The album
opens with the superb Did You See The Words.
Although starting in rather subdued fashion, with children’s
laughter floating over hazy guitars, the melody soon
builds up and takes shape, revealing compact layers
of instruments caught up in its intricate structure,
while the melody becomes more consistent as the track
progresses. Grass takes this to yet another
level. The bastard son of the Beatles-circa Sergeant
Pepper and the Beach Boys’ Pet Sound, with added
glam à la T-Rex, all wrapped up in shimmering
guitars and pianos, with the song’s swirling melody
increasing the general psychedelic tone.
The album then takes a turn for more introvert emotions
as the pace slows down on the beautiful and dense Flesh
Canoe. From there on, the collective construct
far more delicate and haunting songs. If tracks like
The Bees and Banshee Beat show similar
sparkling orchestrations, the melodies are more complex
and tortuous as the drums become virtually non-existent.
This has for effect to exacerbate the rich layers of
sound applied and increase the emotional scope of each
composition. Elsewhere, the soundscapes appear barer.
Daffy Duck for instance doesn’t sparkle
quite in the same way, yet, as its backdrop shows signs
of regular failure and repeats itself all the way through,
as if it was stuck in some kind of loop and was not
able to come out of it, the band create for a moment
an oppressive perspective, which surprisingly suits
their music like a glove. If the mood becomes lighter
again on Loch Raven, it is not until Turn
Into Something that Feels returns to the
luxurious settings of earlier tracks. Once again, the
orchestration is extremely tightly woven and various
instruments step over each other, creating a thick sonic
ground for the melody to develop.
If Animal Collective continue to evolve within their
own boundaries, Feels shows a more varied collection
of moods, allowing for the band to expand on their original
framework while remaining true to their roots. Far from
the introvert ambiences explored on Young
Prayer, Panda Bear’s
solo effort of last year or on Avey Tare’s recent
collaboration with Black Dice’s Eric Copeland,
Feels is a rather uplifting and upfront record
which shows Animal Collective at their best.
4.7/5 |
