New Records: Animal Collective- Fall Be Kind
Written by hKWAP on Monday, 30 of November , 2009 at 2:37 pm
An apt “yang” to the gleefully melodic “yin” of MWPP, FBK delicately compliments/offsets the buoyant harmony of its predecessor with obscured ambience and dark ambivalence. In listening to this song cycle, its almost as if you are experiencing the tracks through a dingy and translucent cellophane, forcing the listener to employ his/her most attentive ear to extract the cleverly concealed music within. Indeed, it’s quite uncanny that a group should undergo such drastic change only months after releasing what had been their most “easy listening” and “obvious” album to date. I might even call it a step back for the trio, not in quality, but in style. It is at once surprising and possibly unnerving to the many who became fans after the aforementioned January 09 release, while comforting to those self proclaimed “die hards” who deemed MWPP “too mainstream” and feared that their beloved Anco had taken a turn for commercialism. (Really, anyone who considers MWPP “mainstream” is probably a little too pretentious for their own good) FBK carries with it a certain disorder and randomness absent from the slick and calculated MWPP. The transition from the doleful and spooky opening of “Graze” to its final section, a melody that could easily find itself in the background of a Disneyland ride, acutely embodies this jumpiness. What Would I Want? Sky proves to be one of the more easy listening “poppy” Anco songs to date, while the following track takes on an air or slow atonal repetition that would make it almost unlistenable out of context. Unexpected from start to finish, the EP makes no attempt at structure, underlying theme, or melodic conformity- a truly miscellaneous collection of emotions and music. To me, it’s a little heavy in transitional ambience, a characteristic which would be expected from a full length, but is a little frustrating when it outweighs the more rhythmically and melodically “catchy” sections. Some will despise this, some will genuinely love this and commend the band for their disregard of convention, and some will passively and unfeelingly praise this because, well, it’s Animal Collective right? Regardless, the release is definitely a nice compliment to an already stunning and diverse catalog and demonstrates a rare disregard for commercial expansion. (To be fair, they could probably live off MWPP for a while) Be sure to snag a copy of Fall Be Kind when the physical EP gets released…
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