LA Weekly: Parsing the Mysterious Lyrical Challenges of The Animal Collective
I won’t pretend that I’m capable of articulating my thoughts on Merriweather Post Pavlion more eloquently than Alfred Soto: “The obscurity of the lyrics doesn’t jive with the moves towards greater openness and focus in the music and singing. Something is being signified, but what? The words half-articulate a joy the band hasn’t deeply considered; marriage is a state, the band argues, that reduces late twentysomethings into apostles blessed with Pentecostal fire, without the attendant clarity of expression. It’s like holy love turned its supplicants into graceless fools. If lyrics like “I’m really lost in your curls” sung by a twentysomething male is your idea of an endearment, have at it. Plenty of eighteen-year-olds are happily married. ”
I’m certainly not immune to the record’s charms. “My Girls” and “Summertime Clothes” are worthy of their advance billing–while “Bluish,” “Brother Sport,” and “In the Flowers” all have their merits. If you enjoyed the record (and you’re reading a blog, so the answer is probably “yes,”) no panegyric came more poignant than Mike Powell’s Village Voice review But even to an ardent 808s & Heartbreak advocate, the lyrics felt particularly lacking–particularly for such such an “Important” band.” My piece for the Weekly attempts to parse the semantic gibberish. It involves Macauley Culkin and Anna Chlumsky’s My Girl, a Ponzi scheme involving Geologist, and Poor Richard’s Almanac. The usual.
LA Weekly: Parsing the Mysterious Lyrical Challenges of The Animal Collective
Download:
MP3: Animal Collective-”Summertime Clothes”
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January 23rd, 2009 at 4:33 am
An epiphany gleaned the first time Animal Collective ever got high. They ordered Chinese food and watched the Doors movie. Later that seminal afternoon, they conceived the song’s title during a TBS broadcast of My Girl. The trauma surrounding Macaulay Culkin’s death explains why they have never inducted a “bee” member.
The band has been tightlipped about this passage. Message-board rumors attempted to peg it to a subway-flashing incident in New York City. Such innuendo cannot be confirmed or substantiated.
HAHAHAHA. where do you come up with this stuff? i’m being serious.
January 23rd, 2009 at 6:08 am
I have never listened to this band for their lyrics. In fact, most of the time I barely notice them. That being said, let this album mark the decline of one the best bands of the decade, musically they’re beginning to retread over older material.
January 23rd, 2009 at 10:55 am
I agree they’re not a “lyrics” band, but on some level…
Personally, I think Sung Tongs and Person Pitch are their best moments.
January 23rd, 2009 at 8:52 pm
I think bringing up the Doors movie is on point considering the inherent contradiction that the same people who worship this band would consider the Doors “dumb hippie music”. The ironing is delicious.
But yeah, I still like a lot of the album. And dig the general sentiment on “My Girls” even if it sounds like they came up with the phrasing while on Salvia.
January 23rd, 2009 at 10:04 pm
[…] music blogs and you’ll see that there are very few comments, very few interactions. Mostly it’s the blogger and their friends diligently posting mp3 files in the hopes that somebody someday will find them. Maybe it’s […]
January 24th, 2009 at 4:28 am
in addition to sung tongs and person pitch, i think feels is right on the bubble, as far as their best work goes.
January 25th, 2009 at 12:17 am
Are hipsters still listening to this shit?
I’ve never heard these guys, but I’m willing to bet that Rick Ross is 20x more entertaining.
Have you seen his beard? Seriously.
January 25th, 2009 at 7:19 am
i am still on the fence with AC but i will say, the fence is more so like a retainer wall than a barbed wire fence.
January 25th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
I don’t know about brushing off the fact that you can overlook the terrible lyrics on the kanye west record, but then be critical of animal collective… using auto-tune may be him shifting focus from his inability to sing, but not from his lyrics. if anything it gives them a little more focus and im sure he knew this. that combined with the relatively sparse tracks… the focus is on the lyrical content. which that album lacks… in great amounts.
i won’t defend animal collectives lyrics, but with in the context of the sound of the record the lyrics aren’t at the forefront.
i like the album a lot. along with the bands output in general… and not overly fond of kanye. so my opinion is completely biased*
*towards good music.