Animal Collective Strawberry Jam 2/5 Stars
Animal Collective is back with the same non-rhythmic, glitchy sounds they explored on their last full-length, Feels. If you are familiar with Animal Collective, you know their tendency to create music that deviates far from the mainstream and defies even the most basic conventions. With their latest release, Strawberry Jam, I expected that they would progress toward something slightly more musical and structured. Yet all the band did was refine their confusing sound. Although the album as an entirety is eclectic and interesting, the repetitiveness of each track begins to take a toll on the nerve of the listener ten minutes in. The album begins with "Peacebone," a song that plods on with the same, steady beat mixed with Caribbean steel drums and scattered lyrics. Unfortunately, though, this steady beat persists through the rest of the album. Later tracks exhibit one singular rhythm and feature overly similar synthesized sounds. The only relief comes halfway through with the song " Fireworks," which shows the band's ability to use long crescendos and arrive at some sort of rhythmic structure. Overall, it's difficult to know how this album can be used: it's too incessant for ambient noise, too irregular to dance to, too heterogeneous to excite any consistent conversation, and over-stuffed with beeps and droning wails for easy listenings. Give Animal Collective some credit: there's nothing out there that sounds remotely like them.
