“In the background was our perfect love.”

Animal Collective’s first full-length release without Panda Bear (as he was living overseas) finds the remaining Animals crafting another audiovisual album, as they did in 2010 with ODDSAC. This time they team up with Coral Morphologic—an environmentally focused duo consisting of marine biologist Colin Foord and musician J.D. McKay—in a collaboration meant to enlighten the general public to the need for coral reef conservation. The visual component is mostly observational time lapse footage of coral life, similar in style to Godfrey Reggio’s 1982 film Koyaanisqatsi. It’s all right, but would likely have a minuscule audience if not for the AnCo soundtrack.

Likewise, the music itself would likely have a minuscule audience if Animal Collective’s name was not attached to it, much like most of their early material. The music is definitely not the Collective’s worst output (that award still belongs to Danse Manatee, I think), but it is certainly lacking in many areas. It is fairly incohesive and there is a dearth of memorable material. To be fair (I feel like I’ve used that phrase a lot concerning Animal Collective’s varied output), the album was originally meant to capture a unique live performance; due to crowd noise, it was re-recorded in a studio.

Since it was captured in only a few takes, the tinkering and overdubbing that clog up some of their more polished works are absent. This lack of sonic meddling allows the songs some room to breathe, but the songs themselves simply aren’t in a style that lead to repeated listens, addition to playlists, etc.

Favorite Tracks: Buxom; Best of Times (Worst of All).