Quote:
Originally Posted by BottleUpAndEssplode
Oh ok I can see your point of view there I suppose but you hate SJ? That's probably their second best! What makes you hate SJ? You know seeing as how you like the songs to grow over time I bet you really like them live right?
Also I was listening to Campfire Songs last night again and I have to say what a beautiful, peaceful album although at points there's this kind of sinister tone lurking beneath which I like.
|
I wouldn't say I hate SJ. I hate it in comparison to say
Sung Tongs (my favorite AnCo release and one of my favorite records of all-time), but not in general. The reasons I dislike SJ were summed up in my review for it on RYM:
Quote:
People who like to deceptively hail this as Animal Collective's best work are either liars or they simply haven't any Sung Tongs in their diets. It's the most throwaway compilation of tunes the group ever produced together. It's not bad, no, but it in no way deserves any praise. It's very passable, and while three to four songs on here are actually quite good and one is among my favorite Animal Collective songs, this as an entity has no cohesiveness, and it's really just a bunch of good enough ideas stapled together and given an album cover that looks like throw-up.
I was talking earlier about those who claim this is Animal Collective's best effort. Most tend to claim this album is some sort of 'balance' between the experimental Animal Collective and the MPP-and-onward Animal Collective. If any album fits that moniker, it's Feels, and I would still be tempted to argue otherwise. Feels, like MPP, has atmosphere; that constant feeling of submersion and life that springs out of songs like "My Girls" and "Banshee Beat" makes the albums somewhat adventurous. Strawberry Jam has nothing going for it. It's not experimental. It's pop music in the same way that MPP is pop music, just with less texture and overall promise. Absolutely void of any groundbreaking or earth-shattering qualities, and even as a pop album (which could have been great in its own right), it's sparsely catchy or intriguing and remains the most inconsistent and poorly arranged Animal Collective album out there.
But of course, this isn't bad, and tracks 1-4 sort of validate that. However, none of these songs say "WE'RE ANIMAL COLLECTIVE SONGS FROM THE ALBUM STRAWBERRY JAM!". They all say "WE'RE ANIMAL COLLECTIVE SONGS." A few even say "WE'RE SONGS BY A BAND THAT ENJOY EXTENSIVE AND SOMEWHAT UNCREATIVE USE OF SAMPLERS." They bounced back on MPP, and really, I wish you'd all stop pretending that Strawberry Jam offers something special. From MPP, take away the reverb, the catchy hooks, the majority of the substance, the cohesiveness, and you have Strawberry Jam. I don't exactly know where it came from -- I happen to like Feels and MPP. Hopefully this is just a blip in the system.
|
I will say, however, that "Unsolved Mysteries" is one of my favorite AnCo songs. Basically, tracks 1-4 on that album are great, and then that completely halts when the dreaded "Fireworks" comes in (everybody seems to love this song though, so maybe I'm just irrationally hating it... Who knows).
I'm yet to hear Campfire Songs, though that description makes it sound like something I'd love. I have it downloaded, just need to get around to it...