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album: Strawberry Jam
artist: Animal Collective
label: Domino / 2007
score: 80
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by Tim Mathiesen
It was quite a year for Animal Collective. Their new album, Strawberry Jam, has been praised as their most accessible project to date. Group memeber, Panda Bear, also released his own solo project, Person Pitch, to critical acclaim.
Both albums have ended up in many year end best albums lists, but I may be the only one who is constantly frustrated by this group. I will freely admit that they are incredibly talented musicians and creative artists. The issue that I believe causes them to consistantly fall just short of creating a perfect album is that they cannot control themselves enough to stick with an idea through an entire song. During each song, there is a hint of a wonderful melody or musical idea, but they hardly ever build on it. It's almost as if they are not confident enough to run with it. Or maybe they are so distracted by playing and experimenting with new sounds and ideas that they miss the incredibly beautiful sounds and melodies that they are creating. I guess I just want them to simplify their compositions so that we can enjoy the wonderful creations that are lost in the layers and layers of experimental sound. Each song seems to have several ideas going on all at once, taking away from each idea.
Don't get me wrong, Strawberry Jam is an incredible achievement by Animal Collective. They are truly coming into their own, but I believe that they need to learn to control their urge to experiment with new toys in the studio. We can all understand this problem. When we get a new tool or toy, we want to use it to its fullest potential, and that's how we learn how to use it and find out what it's capable of doing. This is, of course, a healthy reaction, but when an artist begins a project, they must also ask themselves if they are overusing the new instrument, program, idea, what have you. Is this taking away from the core idea or purpose of this project? Animal Collective has many wonderful ideas and have broken new ground in many areas of the independent music world, along with influencing many young artists. If they could simplify their sound and focus on less ideas at once, they have the natural ability to create an incredible masterpiece. I hope that one day they will control their experimental urges in order to do just that.
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