Animal Collective - Fall Be Kind EP (2009)

Before you judge me for this review, I must make it clear to you, readers, if anyone is still reading this(?), three of the following about me:

Not a Secret: I listen to Animal Collective
Secret: I dislike Animal Collective
Big Secret: I am an Animal Collective fangirl

Now that we get that out of the way, on to the review.


Animal Collective - Fall Be Kind EP (Due out: December 15, 2009)

I have been listening to this EP for a while now. If this record is not called Fall Be Kind, then I think, it would be called The Return of the Merriweather Post Pavillion--featuring tracks that Animal Collective had had no heart to finish before the epic album leak in 2008, leaked by Animal Collective themselves. I still cannot tell if this is a win or a fail.

Fall Be Kind features five decent tracks, one of which I recognized from an encore track in the live album leak, called "Graze" (not "Grace" if you, like me, acquired it from a bad leak). Graze is sunny and it sounds like an opening to a fairy tale movie. Try: Once upon a time there were flowers, and flowers are pretty. So, one day flowers are not pretty anymore... dark, dark clouds are rolling and that is when track number two, "What Would I Want? Sky", kicks in. After the sky, the clouds thicken, your universe changes. Welcome to the bloody future, er, I mean, high-voltage room, that is track number three. Track #3, "Bleeding", digitally transitions you to a different reality--a high-speed reality, which according to me, is possibly the transition to the best track in the EP, that is "On a Highway." Switching gears from the bleeding, Track #4 is fun, loaded with strange yet interesting sounds, and is zooming back into confidence with the trademark Animal Collective vocals we are all familiar with. This EP closes with the most confusing track ever, "I Think I Can", which contains a range of moods that begins with a spooky twilight zone, climaxes with various experimental drums and clapping, ends with vocal overlays and chants (IthinkIcanIthinkIcanIthinkIcanI...), and finally cuts it with another twilight zone.

After perhaps 10-15 rounds of listen to this record (yes, I am obsessive) I still do not know what to feel about this EP. It is not bad but it is not excellent either. I liked Merriweather Post Pavillion. However, I think it would be possible that I would have liked this EP better if I had not been listening to acquainted with Panda Bear at all.

Here is "On a Highway." Give it a try. Maybe you like it.