Animal Collective - Fall Be Kind EP

0 comments

Animal Collective - Fall Be Kind EP

Monday, November 23, 2009

With 2009 coming quickly to a close, Animal Collective has one more collection of for all you animals out there to severely overrate. This one, dubbed the Fall Be Kind EP, contains some old live tracks, as well as a few new ones. Here's Mason's take.

Reviewer
Mason
Categories
Music

Reviewed by Mason Stillwell

Animal Collective - Fall Be Kind EP

This year is panning out to be a great year for avant-garde indie band, Animal Collective. Not only did this year hold the release of one of the greatest albums in their entire lineup, but they continue to release new jams before saying goodbye to this year and moving on to the next musical journey. Although it practically feels like a year since we've heard brand new studio-produced Animal Collective. We still had the live performances, and needless to say that any song performed live starts and ends very differently than I'm sure some listeners expect (like me). The vocal harmonies and direction are much different, the entire sound is different, but still equally as mesmerizing and captivating, as far as I'm concerned. More recently we heard the band play live favorites such as "What Would I Want? Sky", "Bleed", and even "Graze", three songs that encapsulate the group's new EP, Fall Be Kind.

The EP begins with "Graze", which moves from being slow and gloomy into sounds of strong, festive, tribal outburst containing flutes and other musical oddities that are omnipresent in their work. In fact, I am going to say that almost every song from Fall Be Kind begins with a slow, dark and even sometimes chaotic feel and builds into this outburst of stunning orchestration where everything that makes an Animal Collective song comes out at once. This is espicially true with "What Would I Want? Sky", the second song from the EP. Something that makes this song a little more special is the fact that the band was able to license the first legal Grateful Dead sample for it, from a little tune called, "Unbroken Chain", which apparently (Dead) bassist Phil Lesh absolutely loved. The band wasn't even sure what to do about "Sky" besides lay it down, from what I read this was supposed to be on Merriweather but the group just didn't have any time and didn't know what they were going to do to the song, luckily ending up here. "Sky" is personally my favorite song on the EP, although "I Think I Can" surely gives it a run for its money. Alright, so does "Graze". "I Think I Can" begins using a much more primitive, cultural-type sound and eventually progresses into this pulsating wave of electronically rebounding bells, mastered of course, with rejoiceful harmonizations, whereas "Sky" turns midway from chaos and noise into a beautiful vocal melody almost accidentally.

Fall Be Kind is a wonderful follow-up to some of the music they have created this year, this time leaning towards the more relaxing and trance-ish side of thier music, totally eliminating (some of) the energetic attitude that makes Merriweather, well Merriweather. Of course, not every album the band has released has contained this year's sound; in fact, I would say Fall Be Kind is more Strawberry Jam than anything like Merriweather. Though, the group still has that 'mastered' sound that separated Merriweather from the rest. I may honestly have been anticipating too much from the EP as I found myself hoping for a lot more than I got, but regardless the EP has clear direction, experimental sound, a fucking Grateful Dead sample song and sporadic moments of (very lively) energetic release. What else can you expect?

Read more Music