Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam

I'm not really happy with the way I've been reviewing music. In case you haven't noticed, I've been following a pretty stilted formula consisting of one paragraph of generalizations and then a second pointing out interesting aspects of a few different songs. The problem is I just don't really know how to talk about music like other forms of media. What I like about a song or album is just harder to put into words than the story of a movie or feel of a game. But I'll make it a belated New Year's Resolution to try to not be so lame when discussing music.

My enjoyment of Animal Collective is as good an example as any of my tastes shifting towards anything out of the ordinary. If your band is musically competent, has some catchy hooks, and sounds pretty different from everything else, I'll probably like it. Not much on Strawberry Jam sounds at all like traditional rock, the genre of music I associate myself with liking, but it still seems to fit well into the muddled pastiche my collection now is. From the moment the word "bonefish" is uttered and a cavalcade of electronic squeaking bursts forth and slowly evolves into a nice, repeating groove at the beginning of "Peacebone" till the syncopated drumming and formless singing at the end of "Derek", the albums has its ups and downs but still has tons of great moments and sounds that etch themselves totally in your memory. There's only nine songs and a few too many are a little boring, but several are really tremendous, and the freshest I've heard in a long time.

The aforementioned "Peacebone" is the perfect single, seeing as how it enticed me to buy the album without hearing anything else on it. After it settles, it's a nice, catchy song with good singing, especially the periodic falsetto in the chorus, and it has a great interlude as Avey Tare shrieks along. I wouldn't really know since I haven't heard what else they can sound like, but I read it's sort of Avey's album, and I can see it, as his voice is always the centerpiece of the song, accompanied by some unique music built around it. "For Reverend Green" is another great example of this, with the interrupted-distortion sound and vocalizing going on. "#1" is a pretty creepy song with the wavering vocals and keyboard bloops. You know, this is really the same kind of review anyway, despite my efforts. At least it seems less stupid while I'm writing it. "Cuckoo Cuckoo" is really good too. None of the other tracks are bad, they just didn't grab me in the same way as the ones I mentioned. As life goes on and I continue to move away from normal hard rock and towards this weird stuff, I hope there are more bands out there as willing to experiment as Animal Collective.