Track listing:
1. Graze
2. What Would I Want? Sky
3. Bleeding
4. On A Highway
5. I Think I Can
Earlier this year, Animal Collective released Merriweather Post Pavilion to an onslaught of positive reviews and a mass of critical acclaim. I myself currently have it rated in or around my top ten greatest albums of 2009 and that’s a pretty elite list considering the sheer quantity of music that I have heard this year. Now the band are looking to both follow up on that success and tide fans over with the release of a new five-track EP entitled Fall Be Kind.
All in all, Fall Be Kind unsurprisingly picks up right where Merriweather Post Pavilion took off. Part of what is so accomplished about this and other Animal Collective records is the way in which the band manages to combine an intense pop chore with its numerous harmonies and melodies with vary trance-like elements that are as hypnotic as they are bizarre.
Despite merely being an EP though, some of the band’s absolute finest moments are to be found right here. Take, for example, the brilliant Grateful Dead sample on the oddly-titled track “What Would I Want? Sky.” It actually makes for one of the band’s biggest and most eclectic hooks and overall the song is one that I could quite easily imagine getting pretty numerous rotations on rock radio if not for its merit and dark vibe then for its undying ambition alone.
Perhaps more so than ever before, Avery Tare aka Dave Portner and Panda Bear aka Noah Lennox work incredibly, unbelievably well together. This is perhaps best demonstrated on the opening track “Graze,” where Portner kicks off the vocal duties with seductive lines begging “Let me begin / Let light in,” before Lennox joins the fray with a sensuous vocal bridge. Of course, then that eccentric flute solo kicks in and the listener is once again taken off in a completely new and unexpected direction, but of course when it comes to Animal Collective, the unexpected is the expected and that is a big part of its charm.
Of course the hecticness and general chaotic vibe that this and other Animal Collective albums portray is in direct contrast to a new found maturity that was present on Merriweather Post Pavilion, but is now at the forefront of this new EP. It’s a maturity that sees the band maintain its unique and unorthodox sound though, and that is very much welcome. The songs are still blissfully complex in their arrangements yet the vocals and general musicianship ensure that they come across as soothingly simple. Such progression and mastery shows that the band isn’t worried about making sure they follow up on the acclaim that Merriweather… achieved because they are clearly more than capable of doing things their way yet still appeasing both critics and fans alike.
Essential downloads: "Graze," "What Would I Want? Sky," "Bleeding," "On a Highway" and "I Think I Can."
The 411: A lot of EPs are made up of average tracks released purely to keep fans on board with a band before a new release, or tracks that simply weren't good enough to make it onto albums but could make money if released. Fall Be Kind is five tracks, most of which are comparable to some of the band's absolute best work, and when the band is Animal Collective, that is a bold, bold statement. Fall Be Kind is easily the best EP of the year, and one of the best of all time. Awesome stuff.
