John Bemis, Web Producer
@bemiscourant
The quality of an Animal Collective record usually owes itself to the how busy or aloof the band has been. Found holed up in the studio after years of consecutive touring, they have put out pop masterworks; dodging around solo projects and taking five years to put out ‘Painting With’, they sound assured but far less inviting. It’s a record with all of the ingenuity of their previous success but where the sound-playing process seems a priority above a consistent vibe.
Gripes aside, Painting With does show a band approaching their 20th birthday with some energy. Tracks like Hocus Pocus, Vertical, or Bagels in Kiev point to their honed production chops, able to control and mold a huge amount of ambience in one space. Opening track FloriDaDa sounds like the group as a true collective, with each member’s flavor shining through into subtle nostalgic and clear thrill. The beauty of the record is that they do genuinely sound so excited to be in the studio, if perhaps a little misguided.
To me, the track Lying in the Grass embodies a central problem with the record. Painting With is daring but lacks the sort of statement or agenda that you’d expect from the 10th album from a 20-year-old animal collective. It’s re-use of vocal tricks makes the digital sutures from their hectic record-making process more visible, and it’s not pleasant. The lyrical word-soup is forced, rather than a result of wit.
Throughout Painting With, there is the sense that you’re no longer in on the fun; it is a more distant record all around. What’s visible on the track “Natural Selection” is that there is a level of confusion, as the record carries no brazen new direction for the band. It proves that their tactic of spattering chord chord progressions in amongst the id has never worked for them; they work best in extremes, as songwriters or experimentalists but hardly both at once. Whether they choose to create another Sung Tongs or dare with another Danse Manatee, Painting With is a transitional record that, while underwhelming, is gloriously open-ended.
