Animal CollectiveFeels

On Fat Cat Records

A-

Accessibility is not something I associated with experimental psych-folkers Animal Collective. The ethereal isolation of their 2003 album Here Comes the Indian was followed-up last year by the more pop-oriented, but equally out-of-reach revelations of Sung Tongs. But these four young men from Brooklyn-via-Baltimore have looked deep inside for this new album and turned out something... singable?

Far from Sung Tongs' 'hungry bread and butter hustle,' Feels is a lush and thankfully accessible album, pushing Animal Collective toward a more traditional audience while still preserving the oddly organic sound that caused their critical celebration.

Opening with "Did You See the Words," Feels is instantly exciting. A tip-tapping drum beat (almost like hooves), atmospheric guitars and member Avey Tare's low, mumbling lyrical delivery bursts wide open at the first chorus with a bash on the cymbal and the cry of "Inside! Inside! There's something living in these lies!" The melody is only half-present in the rest of the song, resulting in a compelling mix of lilting childhood innocence and starkly mature cynicism.

"The Purple Bottle" is another highlight, prominently featuring the layered vocals that have become an Animal Collective trademark. Angelic call-and-response harmonies hover in the air above the irregular beat, providing the perfect complement to the main vocal, which is sung plainly and clearly in contrast. Panda Bear and Avey Tare are exceptional lyricists; Feels finally provides a forum for us to hear what they have to say, instead of picking through the ether for snatches of verbal complexity.

"Grass" is a shrieking, yet playful sing-a-long and will probably end up a highlight of their live show this fall. The yelping chorus is followed by quick, syncopated lyrics, perfect for a large, drunk and bouncing audience.

"Flesh Canoe" and "Bees" both evoke earlier Animal Collective albums-the latter especially sounds like a mix between "Kids on Holiday" and "Mouth Wooed Her," off Sung Tongs. "Banshee Boat" starts on the same derivative note, but saves itself with a quick, addictive melody and a brilliant five-minute build. "Loch Raven" is quiet and delicate, with bells and echoes and endless layers of atmosphere.

There is no question that Feels is an excellent album, and a surprising step in what I believe is the right direction. It's a joy to finally be able to sing along to Animal Collective without wondering if the words I'm singing are actually right. Musically, the album is a refreshing break from the delicious campfire antics of their previous efforts. This band is going nowhere but up, each album getting better and better. It's just not perfect... yet.

-Sara Tennenbaum

Thrice
Vheissu
On Island Records
B+

"Mystical" and "atmospheric" are terms that best encapsulate Thrice's newest release, Vheissu. With fewer improvisational structures and shredding guitar lines, its musical textures and arrangements are more thought-out and intricate than their previous albums. The music moves at a much slower pace, eliminating almost all punk and metal influences, more recognizably weaving the emo and hardcore genres into hints of classical and new age.

The record's lone brilliance is its arrangements, which employ a variety of instruments running the gamut from hard guitars to a Japanese music box. Spacey keyboards and classical piano are also noteworthy additions, giving the record a wide-open, three-dimensional feel that previous releases lacked.

Opening track "Image of the Invisible" is a fairly straightforward first single, featuring stressed (but never screaming) vocals, hard guitar and fast-paced, snare-driven drumbeats. Nothing new or inventive is revealed, but the track-with its undeniable gang vocal chorus-remains one of the album's best.

The second track, "Between the End and Where We Lie," shatters the conventionality of the first, opening with a synthesizer-and-drum intro recalling the artsy post-hardcore act Cursive.

"The Earth Will Shake" continues this experimentation with an underwater-acoustic guitar-and-vocal intro, before segueing into a straight rock 'n' roll chorus suggesting that lead vocalist Dustin Kensrue has been taking singing lessons from Scott Weiland and Eddie Vedder. Still, in classic Thrice form, they then transition like few others can, jumping into a hardcore verse seemingly inspired by the skillful hardcore outfit Beloved. Perhaps the best and most inventive track on the album is "Music Box," however, a song whose entire structure is based on the eerie melody of a two-dollar Japanese toy.

Overall, Vheissu is just the latest chapter of the book of Thrice-a book that reads strangely similar to that of another popular California-based band, Incubus. Similar to their cohorts, Thrice's need to branch out and 'make new' with every album is almost pretentious, and at times much to their detriment here. Still, their conscious decision to move in an adventurous direction is admirable. Still, it's a shame they've drifted so far away from their 2002 masterpiece The Illusion of Safety, still regarded as one of the best hardcore and metal hybrid records ever.

-Seth Roberts