“But why am I still looking for a golden age?”

If I’m being cynical, as is frequently my wont, I’d say that Monkey Been to Burn Town is a meritless cash grab devoid of artistry. It’s a short EP featuring remixes of the song ‘Monkey Riches’ from Centipede Hz. There’s just no reason for it to exist.

Remix albums in general are usually trite anyway, but this is three versions of the same song all jammed together. Why though? It’s not even that great of a song to begin with. Plus, remix albums are usually done by electronic-leaning artists dressing up more conventional rock and pop songs. Animal Collective is better at this than all of the collaborators that do remixes here, so what’s the point? It would have been more fun to hear AnCo remix their own songs.

The Shabazz Palaces song, which remixes the track ‘New Town Burnouts’ is the only one of note, but it’s more of a rap song featuring the Animal Collective track and only stands out here because of the meaningless remixes it is competing with and the fact that it uses a different AnCo track as its base; otherwise it is entirely benign. Utterly forgettable and unnecessary.