Fall Be Kind EP

Fall Be Kind EP
Animal Collective

I know this leaked last month, but I waited to listen to the whole thing until I had a bought a copy of it. So here we are.

This year has obviously been big for Animal Collective. "Merriweather Post Pavilion" has made "Top _____" lists everywhere and now after the release of this EP, they've gotten even more attention. It's said that they're at their "creative peak" right now, which may or may not be true, I mean... they've put out some pretty "creative" stuff before. A better word to describe it would just be "successful", seeing as how more and more people are recognizing their music to the point where the've become one of the most talked about bands of the decade. This, of course, has lead to them to also get a lot of shit from the "antihipsterantihipsterantihipster" crowd, but whaaaaatever. Maybe I'm just a hipster, but I believe their recognition is well-earned.

"Fall Be Kind" starts off where "Merriweather" ended. But it goes far beyond where that album could go; a promising sign that the next decade holds more pleasant surprises from this band.

It opens with "Graze", which is essentially a song with two parts. The first half is sung by Avey Tare. It's a rather atmospheric, almost ambient, introduction to the EP, I like to think. Let me begin. Almost unexpectedly, the song changes into a bouncier, happier tune and Noah/Panda Bear joins into the signing. And here comes the Animal Collective Express again! (see Brothersport) There's some weird stuff going on here that just seems out of place, but these guys seem to know how to pull it off (they almost always do). And just when you think things couldn't get better...

The next song, "What Would I Want? Sky", is the song that sets "Fall Be Kind apart from Merriweather. It's my favourite song. It's everyone's favourite song. It's Pitchfork's favourite song. It's probably your favourite song too. "Sky" is focused around the repeating line "What would I want? Sky" (no shit), which emerges out of nowhere after "a bunch of noise and some weird words muttered over and over". A whole catchy melody is built off this to, undeniably, create one of Animal Collective's greatest pop songs. Do you get up up up? / Clouds stop and move above me / Too bad they can't help me / What is the right way? Face it. "My Girls" was good, but nowhere this good.

These songs flow so well into each other. After some messing around with the track order, it seems that almost any order you put them in works great (but of course the original is best). "Sky" flows right into "Bleed", where we here some more weird muttering that reminds me of the voices meathead uses in his videos, but that's irrelevant. "Bleed" is on the dreamy side, kind of like the first half of "Graze". Panda Bear hits some high notes in the background while Avey Tare sings a slow, surreal melody. It's my least favourite track on the EP, but it's still very good.

Animal Collective's sound has obviously changed a lot in the past few years. They've given up the more raw/acoustic sounds of "Sung Tongs" and "Feels" and taken up a more electronic-based/"i'm not really sure what instrument that is" sound where we often hear looped noises and sounds combining to form a more complex melody that often isn't meant to be taken apart, but heard more as a single flow of sound (major run-on sentence, sorry). This was especially prevalent in "Merriweather", where basically every song was constructed in this way, though it's seen in parts of "Strawberry Jam" as well. This definitely applies to all the songs on "Fall Be Kind", but "On A Highway" is an especially good example. Not only is the main melody in the background repeating in a drone-like fashion, but the lyrical structure does the same thing, and the song doesn't ever fall into that point of monotony that songs on "Merriweather" are often accused of. It might be notable to mention that I didn't really listen to the lyrics very closely on the first time through, but I definitely couldn't avoid hearing On a highway / There are some workers pissing / It starts my bladder itching / Can I wait for the exit?

The EP hits its darkest point with "I Think I Can". This song is almost creepy at times. I'll try to remember to put it on my Halloween playlist next year. The layered, almost droning vocals combined with the resounding drum pattern and weird distorted piano (?) sound like some caveman ritual you might stumble across while walking aimlessly through the woods at night. O-kay— maybe not, but randomly finding Animal Collective in the forest would be pretty cool. I think I can I think can I think I—

"Fall Be Kind" is a really sound EP. It's both addicting and fun to listen to. Animal Collective is definitely building on their pop sound, and they're doing a great job. I hope the next album is this good. Also... What Would I Want? Sky single? Yes plz

Rating: 8.6/10

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In other news, I'm on winter break right now, which is why I have time for writing novels like this. This is my first not-completely-stupid review, so thank you for reading/skimming/falling asleep at the keyboard. Next year I hope to write more of these, given I have an album to write about and the time to write. New Massive Attack and solo album by Jónsi in February.

Before the end of the year I'm also going to post my own "Best of 2009" list, so I'll get started on that soon...

Posted by Anna at December 22, 2009 06:31 PM