I get that people don't think this holds up to Animal Collective's earlier work...

I get that people don't think this holds up to Animal Collective's earlier work, but this really is the pinnacle of modern psych pop.
>those booming, almost hip hop beats that hit hard as fuck
>the noisy elements juxtaposed with really catchy, infectious songs
>the hocketing is fucking hypnotic and if you can't into it you're a pleb

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The hocketing is supposed to be Animal Collective's integration of cubism and dadaism into their work. It's supposed to be startling and inaccessible. People also don't take notice of the heavy political influence on the lyrics.

it doesn't compare well to their earlier work. it feels like it's made with a different process and different goal. it's a very good record when you don't try to treat it like feels.

The Burglars has to be one of the best songs they have ever made.

The whole way this albums shifts and layers its vocals is actually uplifting. I haven't felt this way about AC since Jam

Yeah I like the Rugrats soundtrack too

Ooooooh scathing.

sweet zinger, did you hear that one from Sup Forums or did you get it from reddit

...

>muh cubism
>muh dadaism
>muh political statements
>muh writing process
>muh experimental rock band

Its literally sounds like fanboy and chumchum. Why would you want to listen to garbage like that

use your big boy words, dear

It's funny how the people who criticize this album just resort to stale memes as opposed to actually trying to form a coherent argument. You're really not doing yourselves any favors.

Honestly i never come here didnt know this album was so decisive

>someone gives an actual argument as to why it's good
>R-Rugrats! Fanboy Chum Chum!

What do you expect from the jumped up band wagoning reactionary denizens of Sup Forums?

They read some dude talk shit on the album gave it one listen over and started parotting memes. Just do you senpai listen to and enjoy what you like.

They have no clout in any facet of life

...

it's good.

some of the songs are great and some songs aren't because they're just another generic variation on the same musical concept

the hocketing is just a rejection of reverb as stated by avey in his interviews.

heavy political influence? Sure Floridada is but you're delusional.

it sounds like you want to listen to Black Moth Super Rainbow
but yeah it's good
these things are true

floridada, burglars, bagels in kiev and golden gal all have political/social commentary in their lyrics

>actual argument

There's nothing but opinions in this thread. The album isn't catchy, the production once again is bloated with annoying effects, all the vocal melodies are identical. I've listened to the this album 4 times and can't tell the songs apart, nothing sticks out. The music itself sounds like a bunch of electronic farts. If other's opinions bother you this much you must be in some sort of secret denial about how much you like this album. If you do actually like it it shouldn't bother that most don't. It's not that we don't 'get it' it's that we just don't like it.

What he meant that using fanboy chum chum/ child television whatever meme only makes you look retarded

listening to this album makes you retarded

> The album isn't catchy
totally disagree but totally subjective

> the production once again is bloated with annoying effects
it's actually pretty sparse production, it's very easy to pick apart all the instruments, more-so than any prior anco release. and i don't know what you mean by "effects", are you calling the actual instrumentation effects? because the synths sound like synths and the vocals are largely unprocessed.

> all the vocal melodies are identical
this is objectively wrong and you are demonstrating an inability to listen to listen to music critically

> The music itself sounds like a bunch of electronic farts
i kinda agree with this one

you're avoiding using an actual argument again my man

It's not like your post isn't a opinion, and I disagree with a lot of it. The album is very catchy from the very beginning, and a lot of songs do stand out, like the Burglars and Golden Gals. I'm not in denial, I'm stating my case about an album that I think is good and the only replies I'm getting are memes

And saying it sounds like farts is something a child would say

i love the album but to be fair a lot of the bass sounds are these really farty synth tones

They do sound identical though

no

Explain to me how they sound the same

All the tracks on it are boring watered down pop tunes. I know a lot of fans of AnCo's earlier work think that SJ->MPP is watered down, but no those albums went in a different direction. This shit on the other hand is genuinely watered down. I guess they went in this direction after people noticed how lazily out together CHz felt compared to their other works.

You aren't listening bruh. Glad to see people are starting to finally understand where this album is coming from.

>please spoon feed me

Just use youtube

For me, Painting With is an album representing the ideas behind Cubism and Dadaism. It's a collage of sound splattered on canvas conveyed through geometric patterns of synth melodies surrounding the framework, that which is the vocals. A lot of the melodies in these songs may seem disjointed and really out of place but they all work very well together when you listen to the song as a whole. I feel like this is partly what they were trying to do with Centipede Hz. The objective of Centipede Hz was to have a main progression (the body) with tons of little melodies and rhythms working around it like hundreds of little legs. The effects such as delay and reverb and chorus all helped to achieve this idea, especially on Panda's kit.

To say Painting With is soulless seems a little strange to me. It may not relate to people on an absolute personal level, but I feel its more a commentary on society as a whole around the world. It isn't just a personal experience, it's one that we as the world are sharing. Songs like Floridada talk about human nature to not want to sit in one place for too long, wanting to explore and find meaning in different lands and areas. Searching for something more. Hocus Pocus talks about the longing for a magic that seems lost, or even might refer to the cultural change of view for marijuana in the states "legalize this prinicple", the principle of allowing one to maintain their happiness through their own means. Vertical seems to talk about stacking and stacking up a corporate ladder to appease those above you, or doing so in order to get where you need to go "my feet can't cross the parking lot, the parking lot is way too hot". (cont.)

did you just copy+paste that

What listen to the album one youtube? No, I've listened to it enough times to make an opinion. I just want you to argue your case, which apparently you can't

Lying in the Grass seems to be a song about searching for a cure for something, one that already exists. "Not asahmed to say the instincts there, but a virtue to deny the truth" It's almost like they're referring to a cure existing for this sickness, either that or knowing it exists but not wanting to confront it. The Burglars has always seemed like a song about taxes to me. We grow up thinking of burglars as someone who comes in your house and physically steals your things, when in reality there are people every day working behind desks and doing paper work shuffling numbers around doing FAR more damage to the economy. "When I was young my parents yelled beware of the ivory man who would steal and sell" Ivory Man? Seems like it could be referring to someone from an Ivory Tower, someone of great importance or very high stature. Natural Selection is a song about not being a materialist, and not measuring your success by the things you have but by how rich your soul is, how many smiles you place on peoples faces. "You measure hits by stuff in the house, it's more sincerely smiles on the face". Bagels in Kiev to me is a very personal song, and not just a commentary on society, but perhaps it is. He makes a reference to not being there to witness the miracle of Moses parting the sea, but he also wasn't there to notice the amazing things his grandfather did for his community in Kiev with his bagels. But he's heard the stories, and he appreciates that fact and it's something he carries with him. Also, it seems like a song about everyone coming together over a nice warm bagel, even if they weren't getting along or if they were before. On Delay I haven't exactly figured out what the meaning behind it is, but to say it doesn't sound good is mind blowing to me. It's one of the better songs on the album. I could sit here and try and explain what I think it's about but I'm not entirely too sure so I won't. (cont.)

Listening to it now and having FUN.

>All the tracks on it are buzzword buzzword pop tunes. I know a lot of fans of AnCo's earlier work think that SJ->MPP is buzzword, but no those albums went in a buzzword. This shit on the other hand is genuinely buzzword. I guess they went in this direction after people noticed how buzzword out together CHz felt compared to their other works.

Spilling Guts seems to be about breaking under the pressure of stress and wanting to lash out at the world, but doing so makes you, yourself, get in your own way. Take the hit or take the fall. You either roll with the punches or crumble under the weight. Summing the Wretch has some pretty cool polyrhythms and the little samples and wavering bells that surround the bassline and vocals are nice. The lyrics seem to indicate something about integrity, doing things for the betterment of yourself or others even though no ones looking or watching. However, the same can be said for when no one is watching, it's a hell of a lot easier to do the worst things you could do. Golden Gal is pretty clearly about showing respect for the girls in the world who have to put of with the strenuous expectations of our society. Giving a shout out to the mothers, sisters, daughters, girlfriends, grandmothers who have all held their head up through the troubles while supporting the men they do. Not allowing society to keep them down. "You think the girls would be so comfortable these days, but sexy genders bring some troubles to the fray". I feel like he's referring to the fact that "sexy genders" being the expectations society has of women, get in the way of a girl wanting to be her true self. It's a motivational tune. Recycling is a tough one for me, because it's probably the only song on the album I'm really not that big a fan of, but it's not horrible. I'm not entirely sure what the lyrics want to convey, but it seems like turning all of your negative cynicism into fuel you can use to move forward in society to better yourself.

But hey, these are just my opinions. And that's just from the songs ideological stand points. Musically, I think each of them stands on their own. The instrumentation is awesome in my opinion. I don't think it sounds at all soulless, it has a very nice bounce to it, it glows radiantly and it has a charged feeling. It may not have the dynamics (cont)

some of their other albums have, but that doesn't necessarily mean it isn't as good. While it may not have the dynamics, it still isn't a jolting push to the finish line that assaults your ears the entire time. It is very well paced, the cohesion is immense (I'd say the only thing that throws it off is Bagels in Kiev, kind of out of left field desu) but it's a great album in my opinion.

The first few times I listened to it, the artwork probably helped this imagery, but I could literally imagine all of these melodies and vocal arrangements and percussion as little geometric patterns falling into place on a canvas to make cubist artwork while the lyrics and more "disjointed" bits of production (samples/notation/effects) portrayed thoughts of dadaism. Collaging these sounds together is part of what I feel makes it such a hugely awesome album. It's an idea they've been playing with since Oddsac and Transverse Temporal Gyrus, but I feel this is the first time they completely and fully applied it to a piece of their pop work. And I think they did a great job with it. Each synth, texture, voice, sample, effect, is a brush touching to the canvas that is Painting With.

me too bro

Do you even know what buzzword means?

I don't know, you tell me. I got tired of typing out the themes of this album everytime someone would ask me to elaborate.

Great shit man. This is better than the P4K review, and I don't just say that as a fan who thought they under appreciated it. You genuinely engage with the music in a way that most people either don't bother to or flat out refuse to. Keep it up!

I was disappointed by it, sincerely. In simplifying their sound they lost a lot of the aspects to their music that makes them great. Painting With doesn't flow, you could listen to it on shuffle and nothing would change. The song structures are too simple and often revert back to one thing instead of evolving. The vocal-trade-off thing is done way too much in it. It has a few very good tracks like "Vertical" but some are also completely forgettable.

a fashionable meaningless word that people repeat to look like they're saying something substantive

its ok to be disappointed by it, this is a perfectly good explanation of why you don't enjoy the album.

its the people who say "this sounds like retarded cartoons so its shit" who are really shitting up any kind of conversation about this record

>doesn't flow, you could listen to it on shuffle
I may be reaching here, but I think that's kind of the point. Keeping up with the tradition of dadaism, they seem to have chosen to attempt to deconstruct their chosen art form as opposed to complacently falling into trends. It seems like an album where you can have favorite songs, and you can mess with the order without a noticeable effect. Perhaps that's why this album wasn't received super well. It's a collection of stellar tracks when they're taken on their own terms. As a single piece, it leaves something to be desired for its lack of variety.

>the pinnacle of modern psych pop
Unknown Mortal Orchestra

Guys, 'On Delay' is my jam and one of the greatest things they've ever done.

Yeah. If I go more indepth with those terms, it won't make those terms any more wrong. PW is nowhere near as sophisticated in its songwriting as their previous works. Hell, it's on generic trap music tier in terms of how much was put into making the music. CHz was lazy because anyone could've made that album. Layering synths/sounds like that doesn't take skill; making them work together like they do on MPP for example does. Same counts really for any music that tries to do a lot at the same time.

fanboy and chumchum

oh dear lord, are you 15? go make a better fucking record then if it's so easy

What will Scaruffi give it?

>CHz was lazy because anyone could've made that album.
Sorry, what?

3

youtube.com/watch?v=hSelbzpq2EM&t=0m30s

If anyone could have made that album, why didn't someone else make it, or Painting With for that matter if they're both so "easy" and "lazy"?

Perhaps your listening skills are lazy.

Nope. See, I mentioned this before in a previous AnCo topic, but messing around with layering a lot of synths isn't anything special. To me it's definitely a fun thing to do on a DAW in a similar vein of jamming with friends. But I would never put any of it up as music for sale, because that's not what it is. It's just some fun messing around with synths in a DAW/different instruments respectively.

because they're both shitty albums that didn't need to be made?

>Painting With doesn't flow, you could listen to it on shuffle
>song structures are too simple
i think you're looking at it the wrong way. painting with is basically just a collection of short and sweet pop songs, it's supposed to be get in, get out, next track. they're intentionally avoiding the anco tropes of long, building songs with a minute of ambiance inbetween.

It's not Safer or Banshee Beat so it must be garbage though right?

>tfw everyone shitting on this album is probably only a fan of MPP anyway

Who's idea do you think it was to get them intio Dadism? I can see geo being a total modern art nut

desu it sounds like you don't know how to appreciate or evaluate basic songwriting if you think that your synth jam sessions would be anywhere near as enjoyable or complex as painting with

i've been a superfan since Sung Tongs
CHz was where i got off board
Painting With was an improvement, and a decent album, but that's it
it's a band who's well past their creative prime - one whose hearts aren't really in it anymore, where the bandmembers are just meeting up for a couple of weeks to churn out another album because that's what they're supposed to do
it's self-parody, it's them trying to recapture what they think the fans want them to sound like
it's The Flaming Lips' At War with the Mystics

Really? Aside from the intro paragraph it's almost entirely speculation of the lyrical intent, which to me has very little to no impact on my opinion of the music.

I feel this.
Pw felt like they tried to transform their soulful and playful qualities into repeatable digital processes. It's a fantastic idea but in execution it became a simplified, repetitive, ghost of the anco most of us love. Honestly, if somehow lopatin lended them a hand this project could have been something special.
True true on the prod tho, going from the spacious beats of pw and then listening to mpp you can clearly hear a vast improvement.

9

>hating on the rugrats soundtrack
The Whip It guy composed it my man

That's my problem with CHz not Painting With. And even then I am not just saying my own synth messing around sessions, but anyone else's synth messing around sessions if they were to try it. If you guys think CHz or PW is so good, you guys are no different from the normie who thinks Martin Garrix is god tier because he was lucky enough to find something that sounds catchy on his DAW and repeats it ad nauseam to become flavor of the month mainstream guy.

Also, PW? Complex? It's the simplest thing AnCo has ever done.

>an album representing the ideas behind Cubism and Dadaism

That's fucking bullshit and you know it especially if you have actually listened to AnCo's earlier stuff.

>It's a collage of sound splattered on canvas
The so called "collage of sound" on PW is nowhere near as enormous as the collages on their other albums they're knowing for having such collages. Person Pitch is the most Dadaist piece that's AnCo related because it has the most variety of sounds embellishing a particular minimalist style repeating thing that stands as the framework (which changes on each track so it's that much more dadaist than PW's pathetic attempt at it.)

>geometric patterns of synth melodies
They are structured, just like their synth melodies on other stuff! By your logic they are all geometric. Not to mention that PW is so sparse with this stuff compared to the likes of MPP, MPP ends up being far better not only from a songwriting perspective, but also from the perspective of trying to be Cubist.

>The objective of Centipede Hz was to have a main progression (the body) with tons of little melodies and rhythms working around it like hundreds of little legs. The effects such as delay and reverb and chorus all helped to achieve this idea, especially on Panda's kit.
This shit is just as retarded because Person Pitch does this same idea but better, whereas CHz sounds more like a mess of a mix.

It really just seems like you completely lack understanding and appreciation of basic songwriting. There's nothing coherent to argue with in your posts.

>lack appreciation of basic songwriting
If there's anything that's buzzword as fuck, it's this shit. What does it even mean? I guess it's what can be expected on AnCo fans who fanboy for the group so much that they actually think CHz and PW are good.

And I get that they maybe wanted to diversify their canon by making an album that isn't some sweeping fluid concept but I think a couple of slower songs and some transitions would've done a lot towards making the album feel "fuller". A lot of these songs almost have what it takes to be MPP-tier, all they're missing is the psychedelic dressing and build-ups that make the tracks really feel special and otherworldly.

Thanks for the fresh pasta

This album fits the themes of Dadaism incredibly well, I'm just not sure you've given it the proper amount of though. Dadaists deconstruct art to unite those who experience it - everyone is left with the same baffled feeling at the way the piece totally rejects the norms of its chosen medium, resulting in an "everywhere" place, where everyone is united rather than broken up by the walls of individuality. This album brings together the Anco fan base with everyone who isn't even a fan, as were all stuck with a group of tracks which don't flow as a coherent overall picture, but rather like brushes on a canvas. Look at the album as a collection of tracks moreso than a concept album and you'll appreciate it more.

>let me relate Person Pitch to the entire Animal Collective discography

You do know when I am saying a collage of sound that doesn't necessarily mean "sampling". ffs

and if anything we are going to say does the collage of sound best it would be Transverse Temporal Gyrus, not Person Pitch as PP was unconventionally sampling music to make pop songs where as TTG was literally a collage of sound.

Also, MPP doesn't represent cubism or dadaism in any way shape or form. Just because you enjoy MPP more and feel like it's watery and full of color doesn't mean it's anything similar to Painting With. Painting With is a lot less jointed and integrated and focuses a lot more on taking bits and pieces of melodies and spreading them out through multiple instruments, disjointing the overall melody, the hocketing helps to push this forward as well. The melodies and harmonies are small segments of a bigger whole where as most of their other stuff, a full line melody will be played by one instrument where a counter melody will be carried out by another. This isn't the case on Painting With.

Anyway, you can call those who enjoy CHz or Painting With "plebs" if you want, but truly it is you who is the pleb if you can't stick it out for the ride that is Animal Collective. They don't release shit for the sake of making money, they make what they are feeling creatively at the moment.

The only thing I don't get about Painting With is how they say it's inspired by cave paintings.

the beats don't hit hard at all my dude

as long as we're talking about kid's shows, carrot rope sounds like wow wow wubzy music

yeah that was actually my issue (or one of them) - the beats sound pretty deflated

>it's The Flaming Lips' At War with the Mystics
if that means their next album is gonna be Embryonic-tier, i'm definitely on board

it's the same thing that happened to PBVSGR but with that album we could blame Sonic Boom

I dunno man. I get the whole Dadaist thing you're talking about, PW is so sparse compared to other AnCo albums in terms of diversity and variety of sounds. It's not even the fact that the tracks don't flow, it's about how little is in each track for something trying to Dadaist it's way. Like I can definitely see Lying In The Grass on the album pull this off, but that's it.

Sampling and sound collage are two different things in music, true. But PP has a far larger variety of sound, and does the dadaist thing far better because each track has a foundation that gets built with a large variety of samples and sounds.

>Painting With is a lot less jointed and integrated
>disjointing the overall melody
Thus far less cubist than MPP and really a lot of AnCo work in general. I never said MPP represented dadaism in any way, stop putting words in my mouth.

>but truly it is you who is the pleb if you can't stick it out for the ride that is Animal Collective. They don't release shit for the sake of making money, they make what they are feeling creatively at the moment.
These have nothing to do with the music. I genuinely don't think AnCo has released anything close to bad until CHz and PW. Who cares if they don't release shit for the sake of money or not? We are talking strictly about the music itself, not their business venture with it.

>it's a band who's well past their creative prime - one whose hearts aren't really in it anymore, where the bandmembers are just meeting up for a couple of weeks to churn out another album because that's what they're supposed to do
this is a lot of assumption just because they're releasing stuff you don't like
if you consider solo albums there's been a new album from anco just about every year. doesn't sound like they don't enjoy making music at all.

That doesn't mean they are still making good music. Look at The Mars Volta after the first two albums. Buckethead every year. Every Yes album after Relayer, etc.

i was refuting what he said. "one whose hearts aren't really in it anymore, where the bandmembers are just meeting up for a couple of weeks to churn out another album because that's what they're supposed to do"
whether or not they're making good music is for you to decide.

>vertical
>spilling guts
>beats don't hit hard

they don't really.

honestly if you think the sum of chz and pw is layered synth tones, then you're really displaying a complete lack of comprehension

Why do so many people not get this

its shit. sonically it's pretty bland.

all said and done, it's about on the same level as chz

No, the sum of them are a very sloppy attempt at music. CHz trying too hard, PW not trying hard enough.

Love this album since it came out, can't really stop listening to it. the hocketing is craaazy good once you give it time. It deffinatly takes time, for me it was about listening to their individual melodies first ( that alone probably took me a few listens of just one song), then hearing the timing (it really isn't just on the upbeat like it might sound at first) and how the two different melodies can work together is pretty fucking nuts, and i don't think people have ever heard a singing style like that ever, so you really have to give it time. Recycling is an amazing example of this. Check the KCRW version, so incredible. Call me a fanboy or chum chum or whatever you want (which you probably wouldn't had p4k gave it a 9 or something) but they've done it again. What an album.

give it time is my main thing if you can't tell

So I started getting into AnCo a couple months ago and have listened to
>MMPP
>Sung tungs
>Prospect Hammer
The acoustic in the last two is very good.

what next?

Campfire Songs if you liked the acoustic stuff. It's the true AnCo masterpiece