“She used to be a fragile baby in a golden place,
But now it seems her acid visions have come and changed that face.”
After a promising debut and a disappointing follow-up (as well as an odd new-material-played-live album), the members that would go on to form Animal Collective came together for a live recording on a porch in the middle of the Maryland winter. Recorded in one take, the album is a breezy blur of acoustic strums and whimpering vocals that finds a weird groove of pleasantly odd background noise.
While still experimental, the album is far from the intentionally disjointed and disruptive electronic sounds of Danse Manatee, but it never gets near the innovative pop sounds of later records. It feels more like rough sketches of songs that are fleshed out bit by bit as the three band members feel momentum build and try different things. The album features the same duo that have been together since the beginning—Avey Tare and Panda Bear—joined by newcomer Deakin (Josh Dibb) and sans Geologist (who was apparently present but did not play on the album). Like the other members of the band, Dibb does a little bit of everything and enjoys experimenting with various sounds.
The album is both beguiling and frustrating. The playing is unremarkable but soothing, and the loose song structures and intermittent melodies are pleasant to listen to. But there is little to latch onto; nothing that really draws you back for repeated listens. The musical textures are very basic, like the players are unconcerned with technical achievement and are very much consumed in the raw act of creating sound, as evidenced by their simple guitar playing and repetitive dreamlike vocals. This is nothing new for AnCo, but they haven’t done it on acoustic guitars with nature sounds in background before.
Sometimes musically reminiscent of early T. Rex (when Marc Bolan still spelled out ‘Tyrannosaurus’ and released his gypsy folk albums with esoteric titles), the vocals end up as the real standout here, and are the only thing truly worthy of praise on the album. The harmonies reveal the Collective’s penchant for Beach Boys mimicry, and their ability to nail the harmonies live is admirable.
If you’ve decided to check out Animal Collective after hearing something from Feels or any album after it, Campfire Songs won’t be as easy to dive into and fall in love with. It barely has any discernible structure, which provides a unique experience as you will find yourself engaging with different parts of the songs as you listen to the album again. However, the musical experiments found here are difficult enough that you may not come back to it enough times for the elements to become distinct. For both its instrumentation and its attempt at sounding appealing (even if the experimental nature makes sustained engagement a longshot), it comes in a few notches ahead of its predecessor. As with the first few albums, it’s interesting to look back at the origins of the band, but if they had never achieved greater heights later, this album wouldn’t matter.
Favorite Tracks: Queen in My Pictures; Two Corvettes.