Animal Collective - Centipede Hz [2012]

[Goofle]

"The first spin elicits very much a "meh" response. The boops and beeps and weird noises are interesting but kind of just wash over me. Avey Tare sounds too whiney and Panda Bear sounds bored. It ends and I can't remember much of it."

I am at this stage now, but it continues after the second and third listen.

[Justthefacts]

Originally Posted by Goofle11

"The first spin elicits very much a "meh" response. The boops and beeps and weird noises are interesting but kind of just wash over me. Avey Tare sounds too whiney and Panda Bear sounds bored. It ends and I can't remember much of it."

I am at this stage now, but it continues after the second and third listen.

Animal Collective are definitely a grower. Took me about 5 times to appreciate Merriweather Post Pavillion and 4 times to LOVE Strawberry Jam

[Goofle]

Sometimes I can just tell. Not worth my time listening to something that isn't even remotely interesting four or five times just to see if it eventually grows. Too many new musics and too many musics I already love.

There are albums that have grown on me of course, but I gave them a chance because they peaked my interest in some form or another. Animal Collective essentially make background music for me.

[Justthefacts]

Originally Posted by Goofle11

Sometimes I can just tell. Not worth my time listening to something that isn't even remotely interesting four or five times just to see if it eventually grows. Too many new musics and too many musics I already love.

There are albums that have grown on me of course, but I gave them a chance because they peaked my interest in some form or another. Animal Collective essentially make background music for me.

That's a shame

[Justthefacts]

Sometimes I don't give up listening to an album until I at least appreciate it. Unless the album just really doesn't click at all with me.

[Goofle]

Originally Posted by Slow Groove

That's a shame

Not really. I'm all good, and happy you enjoyed it.

[Justthefacts]

Originally Posted by Goofle11

Not really. I'm all good, and happy you enjoyed it.

Thanks man!

[Zyrada]

I'm down to the last three tracks. So far, I'm mostly in agreement with the "meh" opinion, save for two tracks that have popped out at me. 'Moonjock' and 'Monkey Riches' have both had an appeal to my own sensibilities. I like that 'Moonjock' uses 7/8 meter, because it creates a real rhythmic pull for me. In my general experiences with them, I think Animal Collective does good with odd meters, because I think they have a good sense of how to make the uneven, asymmetrical base rhythms feel very natural. In the case of 'Monkey Riches', the backing line that runs through the whole song is something I think is really addictive. Half of the reason I kept my ear to that song in particular was because of that line and seeing how they worked it behind the material they put in the foreground.

Now that I'm on 'Pulleys', I feel like I can say that the second half of the album has caught on with me a lot stronger than the first half in general. The sound seems a little more cohesive and less manic, with less of a focus on trying to claustrophobically jam as much noise as possible into a song (which is one of AnCo's signature styles, granted). I think that perhaps someone looking for that dense sound from AnCo's earlier discography will find the second half of Centipede Hz boring and listless by comparison to the first half, but that's from the perspective of someone who's still not sold on the denser stuff, so that guess might be totally off-base.

Admittedly, I don't feel like I could solidly rate this album by virtue of the fact that my attention was a little more divided, and I got interrupted from listening a handful of times during the first half that I was, coincidentally or not, more unaffected by. I definitely think there's a lot more to Centipede Hz that I haven't heard yet. My current impression, I think, has me somewhere indeterminately between a 3 and a 4.

[Gucci Little Piggy]

Ehehehe, makes me wonder how anybody could make this album cover and say: "Yeah, this'll do."

[debaserr]

This just got a real rip, but unfortunately it was ripped with itunes. A FLAC will probably be available within 24h or so.

I don't have high hopes for this, I haven't really enjoyed much of anything they've released post-MPP.