Animal Collective’s newest proper album, Strawberry Jam, is a major step back from their last release, 2005’s Feels. Animal Collective have always been a noisy band, but Strawberry Jam smears sound wherever it feels, cluttering everything with samples, keyboards, vocals, and whatever else they decide is appropriate at the moment.
It can be disorienting, especially on headphones; noises swell and overwhelm the music, and then abruptly drop out again.
Other experimental pop bands (and other Animal Collective albums) weave noise and melody together in a way that feels natural. Strawberry Jam, by comparison, uses sounds that seem totally unnecessary and detract from the songs — plus, they’re so high in the mix that they obscure almost everything other than the vocals.
Throughout Strawberry Jam, Animal Collective show the same unbridled enthusiasm they always bring to their projects, a wide-eyed wonder at what music can be. There is an exuberance to this album, like a little kid with a Fisher Price tape deck recording absolutely everything.
Unfortunately, that naivete extends from the recording approach to the songwriting — the catchiest tunes here are maddening, sing-song affairs that get stuck in your head and may never leave. Sometimes, it works: “Chores” sounds like a Paul Simon song on fast-forward before spinning out into a loose psychedelic chant; “Winter Wonder Land” is driven by a propulsive drumbeat and manages to overcome its own maddening chorus.
Fans of Collective drummer Panda Bear’s recently released Person Pitch will find a similar vibe in “#1,” which takes his Brian-Wilson-underwater sound and marries it to a keyboard arpeggio, a drum, sleighbells, and yet another heaping helping of noise. It’s a meandering piece that calls attention to how much better an album Person Pitch is.
And that’s the primary problem with Strawberry Jam — it invites unfavorable comparisons to Animal Collective’s own stronger material.
– Patrick Hajduch
Animal Collective: www.myanimalhome.net
Domino Recording Company: www.dominorecordco.com