Animal Collective - Feels (Album Review)

 

Animal Collective - Feels

(2005)


My copy: 2008 limited reissue by FatCat Records.


Following the success of 2004’s Sung Tongs, Animal Collective brought Deakin (Josh Dibb) and Geologist (Brian Weitz) back to help expand their instrumentation. Feels brings the full band sound of Animal Collective into a higher level of production while maintaining their eccentric style. 

Buzzing effects, stumbling guitar chords and the sounds of giggling children lead us into “Did You See The Words,” with a prominent focus on piano. All of the instrumentation on Feels had been modified to match the strange tuning of the old piano the band used while recording, giving a slightly off-kilter feeling to many of the tones. Regardless, the harmonies are still unparalleled, with the core melodies being delivered via the vocals and piano. The first track crumbles to an overflowing trickle of layered piano and affected vocal moans, highlighting the more emotional side of the band’s writing. “Grass” is a manic profession of love with shrieks and chirping sound effects that would be suitable for a tribal dance recital.

“Flesh Canoe” wobbles and swells with anxiety, with similarly thick and woozy production. The song is mostly tense and can feel aimless, but there are moments where the sweet vocal melodies reach above the mesh of sounds to touch the heart. Noah Lennox’s percussion is the focal point of “The Purple Bottle” where stick clicks and tom riffs are delayed to create density. The vocals are still excited and bouncy, with many harmonies. The original version was meant to sample Stevie Wonder’s “I Just Called To Say I Love You” however the band has altered the melody of the chorus slightly. The song then breaks into a stilted exercise in repetition with slamming drums and a heavier focus on the guitar arpeggios. 

Come “Bees” the album begins to mellow out, here with a gentle vocal ballad backed by the percussive sound of piano strings being manually strummed. Even at its most stripped down, Feels continues to insert new layers of ambient sound and vocal harmonies. The eight minute “Banshee Beat” starts patiently with vocals, ambient guitar and environmental sounds. Drums eventually fade in, giving the song a backboard for Portner’s intimate falsetto to spring forth. “Daffy Duck” is similar to “Flesh Canoe” in its use of layering though here the atmosphere is more spiritual and calming with whispered singing, warm bass tones and more nature sounds. Portner’s voice seeks to wrap the listener in a warm blanket while the overflowing piano and background music pushes to emotional climaxes. The song runs out of steam and rebuilds itself multiple times across its seven minute runtime. 

“Loch Raven” is a melancholy lullaby with a focus on echoed falsettos from Lennox. The shimmering keys and use of delay lay a fog of mystery for the percussion and vocals to cut through like lighthouses across a dark sea. Things get energetic one last time for “Turn Into Something” where Portner’s infectious shouts threaten to overshadow the bubbly chord progression. The album closes with an ambient wall of sound, slowly fading like a bittersweet ending to a film. 

Feels was the first time the world faced the full force of Animal Collective’s musical prowess with higher budget production and more traditional rock instruments. Though the guitars are bent, warped and tuned to be almost unrecognizable, they provide the album with a sense of identity that is furthered by the lush piano compositions. The album is filled with portraits of love, both lost and found, with a further reverence for life being communicated fully in the songwriting and vocal melodies. There are times where the message is lost in a sea of overwhelming ideas, but it is a truly unique transmission for its uncompromising creativity.

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