Feels
This is the band at its peak; not at its most accessible or at its freakiest, but at its best.
Folk
Sung Tongs
Sung Tongs doesn’t connect with all of its experiments, but for the first time Animal Collective is actually fun to listen to.
Here Comes the Indian
It veers between eerie, nonmusical tension and otherworldly sublimity without breaking a sweat. It’s the kind of thing that I don’t think is really possible to come up with in your head and then go out and create. It has to come about via experimentation and iteration.
Campfire Songs
Sometimes musically reminiscent of early T. Rex, it comes in a few notches ahead of its predecessor.
Spirit They’re Gone, Spirit They’ve Vanished
It’s kind of like a David Lynch film—at a glance it could pass as an awkward attempt at mimicking a popular analog, but if you peel back its layers, you find it is a creation of an endlessly complex and inspired artist.