2012’s hectic “Centipede Hz” seemed to be a reaction to Animal Collective’s most accessible album, “Merriweather Post Pavilion.” The psychedelic indie rock band’s latest LP, “Painting With,” is a counter-movement to a much more minimalistic sound.
While some of the band’s previous albums, such as “Feels” and “Sung Tongs” were minimalistic in their own right, featuring long songs that would often repeat one or two chords or a simple riff for 10 or so minutes, “Painting With” is entirely composed of relatively upbeat songs that are all under five minutes.
Instead of repetition and ambience, the album mainly relies on drums and bouncy synth bass. Also, rather than catchy instrumental hooks like those on “Merriweather Post Pavilion,” the instrumental components of the songs seem largely rhythmic.
The album relies heavily on the vocal harmonies of singers Dave “Avey Tare” Portner and Noah “Panda Bear” Lennox to provide the melodies. While this means the album lives and dies by the vocal performances, fortunately the vocals are above par.
Not only are the band’s signature Beach Boys-style harmonies present, but Panda Bear, who generally takes the lead on a couple songs every album, is much more heavily featured than in the past. Often, verses take the form of a vocal call and response as both singers alternate back and forth throughout the song. This feature can at times be a little off-putting, at least initially, but is generally handled well, as in the song “Summing the Wretch.” However, it is the more traditional performances that particularly stand out, and are among the best in the band’s discography.
After getting off to a strong start with the catchy song, “FloriDada,” the album performs well at maintaining momentum, as a brilliant song is never more than a couple minutes away.
“Vertical” features a beat reminiscent of Kanye West’s “Amazing,” which features an awesome vocal build-up within the verses and a lyrically odd but engaging chorus, “My feet can’t cross the parking lot / The parking lot is way too hot.”
The most upbeat song, “The Burglars,” is an instant classic and combines a full instrumental sound with great harmonies and build up to an explosive climax. “On Delay” likewise features more prominent instrumental elements and slower drawn out harmonies to great effect.
The album’s most recent single and debatably its best song, “Golden Gal,” is bouncy, highly addictive and features an incredibly catchy outro that recalls “Merriweather Post Pavilion’s” similarly romantic “Bluish.”
There are no particularly bad songs to offset the various highs, and even the weakest song, “Spilling Guts,” happens to be the shortest at just under two minutes.
The bare nature of the accompaniment and short song lengths make the album feel like something has been lost. At its best, past Animal Collective has boldly straddled the line between intoxicatingly brilliant and causing ears to bleed. The album still has an experimental sound, but the instrumental components lack the same depth of the band’s best overall aesthetics.
There are still cool little touches, like the sprinklings of piano and saxophone in “Lying in the Grass.” The album also makes use of subtle chirpy accompaniment that recalls some of the better songs like “Essplode” and “Throwin the Round Ball” from the band’s early album “Danse Manatee” that are featured in songs like “Bagels in Kiev” and “Golden Gal.”
While each song brings some cool twist, the uncharacteristically short song length can at times make them seem more like intriguing samples than full songs. It is probably not a coincidence that the best song, “Golden Gal,” is also the longest. However, overall, the songs largely fit together well and the album maintains a nice flow.
While Animal Collective’s 10th LP doesn’t quite live up to the band’s big three — “Feels,” “Strawberry Jam” and “Merriweather Post Pavilion” — it is nonetheless a fun and strong addition to the band’s overall discography.
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