REVIEW: Animal Collective - Water Curses EP

Animal Collective, the Baltimore-based band of avant-garde indie musicians, has once again kept their tradition of releasing an EP that closely resembles the album that preceded it. 2007’s Strawberry Jam was Animal Collective’s subtle adventure into a guitar-effect backed, heavily sung kind of album, and it has been one of their best received yet, which says an awful lot in its own right. They now present Water Curses, an EP comprised of many of the expressive, colourful background noises ringing throughout their previous record, with a slight de-emphasis placed on harmonic structure. This creative diversion caters more towards the versatility of Animal Collective’s two singing musicians David Portner, whose stage name is Avey Tare and Noah Lennox, otherwise known as Panda Bear.

Water Curses begins with the title track, a poppy kind of sound with major emphasis on the melodic wailing of Panda Bear, which complements the densely packed ringing of drums, acoustic guitar, and electronic keys following. There are snippets of effects that sound like musical elevators and jet planes, which comfortably blend right into the background. The song’s final push is an electro-pop melody overlapping the lines of the song, building up towards a grand finale of hooting and guitar snapping, suddenly brought to a halt. It’s obvious that this tune was created to be a crowd pleasing, live dancing track, and Animal Collective once again triumphs in making you just want to bust a move to their fusion of sci-fi pop.

The next song, “Street Flash” has been an exclusive live track for the band for quite some time, and it has finally made its way to print. It starts very slowly with a jamming-like guitar riff, allowing Avey Tare to build off the melody with a major lyrical venture into his explanative, yearning style of storytelling, singing “so I'm so sorry /I came in late this evening /but all the clocks around /the town had died.” A simple drum line in the back patterns his voice, and samples of tapping and snapping sounds and quiet whispers slowly build and transcend the interval between singing. The next movement is full of vibrato, effect-driven singing, and the musical sound effects start coming into full swing. The underwater voice sings in a clever rhyming scheme, until Avey Tare lets a hard lined scream go over the altered electronic piano medley in the background. The song then comes back up from the ocean line, and finishes its ambient tune much how it began. “Street Flash” isn’t as accessible as some of their other quiet tracks, like the ones found on their 2005 album Feels, but it definitely feels reminiscent of their previous gentle, waving hums.

“Cobwebs” begins with overtly paced percussion beats, continuing a spoken-word lyrical presentation, claiming “Just wood un-refurbished /sounds more like paradise to me.” The pace quickens with descending kind of sounds over a quickening pace of cymbal tapping. There are well produced noises placed with obvious attention to detail behind Avey Tare’s lyrics, and the sing-along chorus plays with quiet guitar strums and bells and rings, holding on with tense effects and distortion. Then the entire band sings the title of the track to the tune of a de-tuned guitar slam, with a quiet whisper in between the repeating electronic drum.

The song then gurgles into the final, quiet underwater piano ballad “Seal Eyeing”. Very hushed, personal singing is accomplished through a disregard placed on the voice, in exchange for the moody piano lifts and drops. Friendly singing in the song observes that “Our shores will all be /dripping round a /swirl. /Now there's no time for a photo”, giving the impression of a quiet sadness that surrounds the seeming bliss often associated with things falling into place, a sadness the lyrics of Animal Collective are all too familiar with. They often sing of the theme of grief under seeming bliss, and this track is no exception, with an obvious longing heard in the scratchy sound of Avey Tare’s voice.

The EP is mainly a composition of the outtakes from the Strawberry Jam recordings, but Water Curses feels like its own separate composition, outlining a central theme in every track. The EP is a definite nod to Animal Collective’s comfort in implementing strange, shaky effects into the background of their experimental sounds, emphasizing their growth out of their once synth-driven, noisy melodies. It is yet another testament to Animal Collective’s unusual experiments between full length albums, and it has a definite place in their constantly morphing catalogue of experimental, emotional music. It is certainly worth a listen to any fan, though it may not be as accessible as one of their full-length albums to someone who is unfamiliar with their musically moody experiments.

8 / 10