8 July 2008 :: Listravahungover.

Track Listing

1. Leaf House
2. Who Could Win a Rabbit
3. The Softest Voice
4. Winters Love
5. Kids on Holiday
6. Sweet Road
7. Visiting Friends
8. College
9. We Tigers
10. Mouth Wooed Her
11. Good Lovin Outside
12. Whaddit I Done

Record Review

Animal Collective

Sung Tongs
(Fat Cat; 2004)

Rating: 87%
Combined Rating: 84%


It was our first camping trip of the new year and our bags were packed lightly: numerous bottles of water, some steaks, a small grill, a friend's wizard water bong, a quarter of grass, an old boom box that still sounded pretty great despite appearances (the DC Talk sticker, which my friend swears was put on there by an ex though no one believes him, doesn't help the situation any) and a small lot of CDs, a decent mixture of head-fucks new and old. Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band, Sunburned Hand of the Man, Boredoms, Acid Mothers Temple, Floyd's Meddle and, for kicks, the new Animal Collective record, Sung Tongs. The friend had been completely blown away by last year's Here Comes The Indian and whole slew of re-releases, but, despite a handful of moments on Indian ("Slippi," mostly) and Spirit They've Gone..., I'd yet to be completely sold on them.

The game plan was simple and once the dark started to creep in, we got straight to it. We did some quick cooking before dark, finished a few bowls, and, after Vision Creation Newsun and Headdress had set the mood, Animal Collective's Sung Tongs went on. My friend prefaced it as "either completely brilliant or drug-induced insanity," though I guess we were in no position to decide. Within seconds, "Leaf House" had opened the album with an incredible rush, like if the rest of the Beach Boys, Smile/Smiley Smile-era, had decided to join in instead of harshing Brian's buzz, continuing in the tradition of disregarding musical continuity and releasing something -- three and four part scaling harmonies intact -- that would make even Sgt. Pepper sound like Herman's Hermits. It even has a bit of humour amongst the drug haze, something Wilson had also been using heavily around that time, with a call-and-answer "Kitties/ Meow" ending. We built up the energy to look at each other and nod in agreement; yup, the song sounded that fucking good.

It would rarely reach those heights again, but Sung Tongs did manage -- and this is something that Here Comes The Indian and Campfire Songs in particular hadn't done for me -- to keep me engaged from beginning to end. "Who Could Win a Rabbit" quickly chased "Leaf House" and, though I hate to use this word when discussing the Animal Collective, it felt even more accessible; its repeated hook being perhaps the most straight-forwardly catchy material they've worked on since Spirit. "The Softest Voice" brought things to a hush, using Microphones-esque layers of slightly discordant acoustic lines to slowly build to its whispered vocals before breaking completely into a psychedelic haze of wind chimes and effect-laden atmospherics.

"Winters Love" follows and, much like the rest of Tongs' opening tracks, shows a side of the group that falls much closer to the poppier leanings Spirits They've Gone and the lax atmosphere of Campfire Songs, but in a manner that the band has never attempted before.The quiet, ethereal harmonizing that propels the track is something that I didn't expect to hear from the group, but even with it, the band manages to break off into a second half that carries the harmonic backing of its long build while giving it a twisted folk feel (revisited on the brief and wonderfully jovial "Sweet Road"), again full of more vocal layering that make the track as irresistible as any safe and familiar indie-pop song released this year.

Even the record's twelve-minute epic "Visiting Friends" feels more focused and less decidedly esoteric. With a similar focus on acoustic guitar and free-form vocals (the slowed-down bits that sporadically surface are a nice touch), the song takes its time developing (even though the chord progression never really changes) with instruments, vocals and effects floating in and out of focus, and maybe it had to do with our inebriated state, but it the track unfolded in a manner that made it work when, in theory, it probably shouldn't have. Once it was over, my friend paused the record and, between ranting about how great he thought it was, "prepared" us for another twenty odd minutes.

And, after the brief break and a new bowl, we set into the second half, which was just as consistently fucked as the first. After the brief "College," consisting of more Beach Boys-ish harmonizing, "We Tiger" brought back the tribal rhythm that had been the focus of most of Indian while still infusing it with another non-sequitur melody. It leads seamlessly into the highlight of the second half, "Mouth Wooed Her;" following in the vein of the album's best tracks, the vocals float in and out of place and tune, the lyrics again recalling Wilson's Smile-era compositions, focusing on yet another element, water. I kept bringing up completely arbitrary connections between the two -- right down to the possible four elements connection -- which my friend either brushed off as ridiculous or just completely ignored. I never bothered to ask.

As the equally odd "Good Loving Outside" and slightly disappointing "Waddit I Done" came to a close, we laid in complete silence for at least a few minutes, still trying to get our heads around what the fuck we'd just heard. For my friend, it was just further proof that Animal Collective have always known exactly what they've been doing and their few flashes of brilliance along the way were no fluke. For me it just added an aspect that I felt was sorely missing from Here Comes The Indian, Campfire Songs and Spirit They've Gone (I've never liked Danse Manatee much), but the added poppier leanings (and I must stress that I use all of these terms loosely) that really drive the record do nothing to take away from their incredibly unique approach, even if it is kept to a calm pace, or belie, and yes I feel the need to stress this, just how fucking weird they are.

My friend eventually put on Floyd's "Echoes" before sparking the bowl for the last time, but even during it, the chorus of "Leaf House" was still running through my head. We still haven't decided on his brilliant or just completely insane question, but we did agree that it doesn't really matter much; either way, they've created one of the most unpredictable and rewarding albums of 2004. Scott Reid :: 4 May 2004 |