Animal Collective - Fall Be Kind EP

By all accounts, Animal Collective have had a good year. No matter what you think of Merriweather Post Pavilion, there is no arguing that its success has propelled Avey & Co. into the (relative) mainstream – the album has appeared high up in most critic’s end of year lists and the band even topped the NME’s ‘Future 50’ list, whatever the hell that is.

Indeed, with their new release, Animal Collective seem to be taking things more seriously than ever before. The production on ‘Fall Be Kind’ is streets ahead of any of their previous releases. Where ‘Strawberry Jam’ and ‘Merriweather Post Pavilion’ (their two most recent full lengths) were cluttered and abrasive, with far too much high end, Fall Be Kind is smooth, spacious and down-right gorgeous. Just listen to ‘On A Highway’ – with its minimal arrangement highlighting the perfectly reverbed percussion; it seems finally Animal Collective have realised that sometimes less really can be more.

This less is more approach also extends to the songwriting on ‘Fall Be Kind’ - only on closer ‘I Think I Can’ do the band really cut loose in the swirl of hyperactive vocals that they have become known for - and the songs really benefit from this new found maturity. The vocal delivery on Fall Be Kind is more reserved than ever heard before from this band; gone are the yelps and screeches that had many brandishing Animal Colective as ‘obnoxious’ in the past, replaced instead by subtle counterpoints and rich harmonies.

Nowhere does the vocal interplay sound better than on Fall Be Kind’s towering centrepiece, ‘What Would I Want? Sky’. After an abstract opening of heavy percussion and ambience the song melts seamlessly into one of the most beautiful four minutes of music Animal Collective have ever produced. Centred around a repeating vocal sample (taken from a Grateful Dead song), ‘What Would I Want? Sky’ is a wash of understated melody and texture, showing real restraint and poise as it flows towards its utterly arresting conclusion.

This all sounds very promising, then. But, as any fan of Animal Collective will tell you, things have never really been straightforward with this band. Remember the unlistenable/inspired (delete as appropriate) twelve minutes of stay-on-one-chord-and-mumble in the middle of ‘Sung Tongs’ (an album of otherwise beautifully melodic freak folk songs)? Remember the unlistenable/unlistenable ‘Danse Matinee’? In the past, whenever Animal Collective have flirted with accessibility they seem to shy away from it almost immediately.

But this time it’s different. I think it’s fair to say that ‘Fall Be Kind’ is the sound of this great experimental band finally settling down – there are no big risks taken on this EP and for once it seems Animal Collective are happy to let their songs speak for themselves. ‘Fall Be Kind’ is remarkably well balanced and consistent for an Animal Collective record and is, for the most part, hugely successful. At just under half an hour, it is more of a mini-album than an EP, and deserves to be considered next to ‘Feels’ and ‘Merriweather Post Pavilion’ as one of Animal Collective’s finest achievements.

Listen now on Spotify

Tom