Let's face facts, there are few bands in the indie sphere that elicit such strong reactions as Animal Collective. In general you either admire and embrace them for their fearless experimentation or you view them as a group of musicians who intentionally try to make their music as pretentious as possible.
Usually I tend to agree with the latter viewpoint. However, their 2009 album Merriweather Post Pavillion managed to soften my stance on them somewhat.
Does the new EP Fall Be Kind aid that process along? No significantly.
The record opens with the track "Graze". The song begins as a swirling, dull haze. After several minutes of boredom-inducing fog, the song bursts forth as an intriguing flute march. "What Would I Want? Sky" has the potential to be a forceful multi-layered post-rock blitz. However, the layers become so cluttered as to create little more than a musical mess. The vocals on "Bleed" are over-processed to the point of being nearly unlistenable. "On a Highway" goes nowhere...very...very...slowly.
There is some hope. The EP closer "I Think I Can" is a complex riff on a simple theme. As a song it is more cohesive than most of Animal Collective's oeuvre, as they seem to take the listener's perspective into consideration.
Unfortunately, too much of Fall Be Kind perpetuates Animal Collective's tendency to bury snippets of worthwhile musical exploration amongst mounds upon mounds of filler noise. Just because one can make all manner of sounds doesn't mean that one should, nor does it mean that one should attempt to include them all in one piece of work.
Until Animal Collective successfully fights the urge to wrap all of their interesting experimentations within a gauzy veil of musical pretensions and wankery, I will remain entrenched in the camp that finds it difficult to enjoy their work.
Best tracks: "I Think I Can", "Graze"
Track listing for Fall Be Kind:
- Graze
- What Would I Want? Sky
- Bleed
- On a Highway
- I Think I Can
Animal Collective's Myspace
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