Animal Collective - Time Skiffs (2022)

Man, I was all ready to hate on this, but I should've had faith in these guys. They wrote one of my favorite songs ever, which takes a good minute to really pick up and evolve into something so beautiful. The first two tracks of this did nothing for me and I found myself dreading a slog through the rest of the album, but starting with track 3, I was so ready to continue and not only did the rest not disappoint, it was delightful.

In the past their albums have been much more of a noisy mishmash of experimentation with the "actual songs" (sorry I'm such a phillistine) kinda hiding in this musical sandbox that you have to dig through. The whole experience was nice enough and the hidden gems were lovely enough that it was all totally worth it, but I did sometimes find myself wishing for a little more focus. Granted, I haven't exactly kept up with them since (oh my god) 2009 and they've put out quite a bit since then, but I really enjoy this new direction of theirs. There are much more distinct, concrete songs, but the noise and experimentation haven't gone anywhere and things are as beautiful as ever.

If you like weird, noisy, experimental pop music you probably already know about this band and should definitely give this a listen. It's a winner and is going to motivate me to catch up on what I've missed from them over the last decade or so.

Highlights: Prester John, Strung With Everything, Walker, Cherokee, Royal and Desire

For Fans Of: Animal Collective (lol), Vampire Weekend, Beach Boys (really), the Minecraft soundtrack (yes, again)