Animal Collective have been cutting into the edges of popular music--or just plain cutting edge--for most of this decade, from Sung Tongs to Feels to Stawberry Jam to this year's Merriweather Post Pavillion, arguably their best album to date. Without sacrificing any of their inventive sonic identity, Animal Collective thrust themselves into the mainstream--or rather, pulled the hip masses into their unique pop realm--by the shear force of their creative powers. To have conceived and produced an album so strange and accessible is a masterful accomplishment.
If you had skipped forward in time even a decade--say from 1999--you might not even recognize some of the sonic origins of Animal Collective's latest musical effort. But a decade experimenting in throbbing and swelling electronica while worshiping the harmony-drenched pop of yesteryear has yielded inspiring results. The mercurial trio incorporates everything from African polyrhythms, ambient music, late-decade dance rock, and sixties-pop into a brainy mix that seeps its way into your synapses. Throw in the fact that "My Girls" is one of the best fifteen songs of the last decade, and you have an album that is nothing short of a certifiable classic.
BONUS: Check out the incredible song "What Would I Want? Sky" from Animal Collective's Fall Be Kind EP.
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