Here’s the next installment in a series that brings you classic indie rock albums at hugely discounted prices. Every week, Amazon.com is letting us select one album from its MP3 store to go on super sale (up to 75% off normal prices). Hopefully you’ll be able to add these must-own LPs to your library without breaking your budget. Today’s deal: Animal Collective’s Strawberry Jam.
Animal Collective’s eighth (seven studio, one live) album Strawberry Jam is the most recent title in our series of Amazon selections. That said, a lot has happened — post-Strawberry jams, Water Curses, the impending Merriweather Post Pavilion, apologies from Grizzly Bear — since we first heard “Peacebone” thru “Derek.” When going back through A.C.’s output, it’s difficult labeling a true “best album” because they’ve managed to shape-shift for so long. You could see Sung Tongs as the crossover, but Strawberry Jam is where they found a way to deepen their sound, making it more accessible (a la Panda Bear’s Person Pitch), but just as adventurous as their earlier, more free-form work. For starters, the nine songs’ food, firework, Al Green, and magi-centered lyrics — don’t forget that mildewed rice — are easier to parse than past chirps and chants, the syllables even less stuttered than those on the lovely Feels. It also goes down easiest from start to finish.
As we wrote when we first evaluated Jam‘s Tucson-recorded avant-pop, the songs have “fewer stretches of weirdo ambiance; even blustery/blown-out ‘Winter Wonder Land”s a melted box of Crayola’s” and that the collection’s best tracks aren’t necessarily the warped shooting-stars of “#1″ or “Cuckoo Cuckoo”‘s extended tunneling, but instead, the infectious, tricolor trip-pop tunes:
“Peacebone” bumps along with a steel drum jangling besides a bubbly rhythm and layers of whiplash vocal effects; “Chores” laps constantly, its pinball calypso build finding a psychedelic (beach) boy-band upswing at the 3/4 mark; and the sweaty sermon, “For Reverend Green,” skitters with a Modest Mousy spastic yowl (as does the excellent “Fireworks”). The band’s always offered catch in their golden throats, but these tracks possess more focused dynamics: defined lead/backing vocalists, tighter structures, and bigger choruses.
A year and change later, those choruses are even bigger, and the less immediate tracks like aforementioned “#1″ and “Cuckoo Cuckoo” have bloomed, making this a collection best absorbed as one twittering, chirping whole. For the next week, you can pick it up at Amazon MP3 for $2.99, down from the original price of $8.49.
Help us make great albums available at low prices by suggesting future Friendly Deal selections in the comments.
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Oh yes! A little “happy December” present to myself. Thank you!
to choose this as a classic is a mockery
YES!
shouldn’t everyone already have this in their collection?
who is buying these albums?
Stop being an elitist sack of shit. No one has time to listen to every well-reviewed, supposedly hip album that comes out. I think it’s a good choice. Instead of asking something like “shouldn’t everyone already have this?” why not praise Stereogum for making it easier for other people to discover this album?
relax, thats one person’s opinion, you “elitist sack of shit”.
that said, great album, not a classic though.
woah.
i didn’t mean to bring the wrath of a schizo upon myself.
an elitist sack of shit… hmm.
isn’t it quite contradictory of yourself to bitch me out by calling me an elitist?
obviously you feel like you are superior to me, so you are the elitist sack of shit?
wait, wait, wait… before you start banging your keyboard and screaming into the screen, just get a glass of water and put your pants back on. please.
I’m officially suggesting anything by Josh Ritter… more people need to listen to him.
I wholeheartedly second the Josh Ritter recommendation.
“The Animal Years” may not be a classic, but it’s good enough to deserve a listen from everyone who appreciates inspired songwriting.
nice! this album was on my list of albums to buy…
suggestions:
spiritualized- ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space
my bloody valentine- loveless
jesus lizard- goat
Please get a deal with Amazon for CDs and not only MP3s. I rather buy CDs than MP3s.
I nominate The Microphones – The Glow, Pt. 2.
ditto
Agree with this sentiment: “to choose this as a classic is a mockery.” It came out in 2007. It’s a classic?
I think Sung Tongs is a better album but this is probably a better album for people unfamiliar with Animal Collective.
I disagree. It’s probably more accessible, but it hardly captures the band’s core aesthetic.
this is my least favourite animal collective album from feels onward, but that said i am jealous of anyone who has yet to hear peacebone. and by jealous i mean jealous that you are going to fall in love with it and listen to it over and over again until your ears bleed.
good choice i’m just getting into animal collective. i have sung tongs and water curses and this would be a nice addition now if i could only find a credit card…….
how about turn on the bright lights by interpol thats a good one!
Great album? Definitely. Classic? I don’t think this one has earned ‘classic’ status yet. Give it a few more rotations before we whip out the old classic stamp. How about one of these for the next sweet deal?
Built to Spill – Perfect From Now On
Flaming Lips – The Soft Bulletin
Modest Mouse – The Moon & Antarctica
Word.
Fuck this shit, I can’t take it: Animal Collective stinks. And Person Pitch blows too.
built to spill – keep it like a secret
pavement – crooked rain
linkin park – parklife
Hm, what’s wrong with this picture?
This is a little too recent for me. I prefer wait a few years to consider an album “classic”, and think it would be cool for Stereogum to promote music people might have missed, rather than market albums that are still nearly on the new rack. But more power to you, it’s a good album, and if you don’t own it already, you should download it and enjoy.
I’m really posting to echo everyone’s Josh Ritter comments. Josh is so under appreciated. It’s good to know I’m not the only person that is crazy about his amazing music.
Modest Mouse – The Lonesome Crowded West
Built to Spill – Perfect From Now On
Pavement – Crooked Rain Crooked Rain
Trail of Dead – Source Tags & Codes
Decemberists – Castaways & Cutouts
The Smiths – The Smiths (or any Smiths album)
Eric B. & Rakim – Paid In Full
I know this is supposed to be “classic indie rock,” but I see no harm having a non-rock album in there.
how about pinkerton?
How’re these for recommendations?
The New Pornographers – Electric Version
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists – Hearts of Oak
Sleater-Kinney – Dig Me Out
OR, if we’re going further back…every single person in the world should have Mission of Burma’s Signals, Calls and Marches EP. Academy Fight song should be required listening from 1st grade onward.
I knew AC were coming…okay. I like a lot of the above suggestions. Well, except one but you could use *Blur’s* Parklife if you must… anyway, Mew’s And the Glass Handed Kites; Mansun’s Six (or Attack, I’m flexible here), BSS’s YFIIP (obv!), maybe Galaxie 500′s On Fire, NMH’s Aeroplane…and if it’s a cost per record (not song) then Magnetic Field’s 69 Love Songs (“attention shoppers, we have a bargain!”)