Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam

v.e.r.b.a.l

A year ago, a friend of mine kept pestering me to listen to what he thought was the best album he'd ever heard in his life and he has pretty good taste, so I listened when I realised that he was acting like an excited teenager who has just discovered the code for unlocking the porn channel!

The album he got me to listen to was Person Pitch by Panda Bear. It's a brilliant album, but I wasn't salivating over it as much as he was. I looked into this Panda Bear character a bit more and found that he played with an experimental group called Animal Collective who had released a critically acclaimed album that year too.

Strawberry Jam is one of the best albums I've ever heard. I haven't been this excited about an album since I discovered Radiohead. It's subtle, aggressive, poetic and ambient at the same time as being very loud and very crazy. Peacebone is one of the best constructed songs of this decade. The crazy electronic noises are complemented perfectly by amazingly simplistic catchy melodies. Reverend Green and Cuckoo Cuckoo are two of the most impressive vocals I've heard since Smashing Pumpkins' Melancholy. Changing from a Beach Boys-esque chant to a spine-crunching scream in a word, both songs suck you in completely.

Anyways, speaking of sucked in - I've ranted on too much: just go out and listen!

Pianist2891

Noah Lennox is a very interesting person and musician - agree that Person Pitch is a great album, along with The Avalanches Since I left You. Bros by Panda Bear is possibly the greatest track ever (depends on what day I think about it:D).

I play a good bit of AC/PB on my radio program which is actually a classical music show, believe it or not! And the feedback is always incredible when I do play any of their stuff!

JæKæ

It's all a bit too frantic and noisy for me.