Premature Evaluation: Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam
In a year of older prayers and reversed Icelandic gurgles, our ears might've sharpened: On initial listens Strawberry Jam's lyrics are easier to parse than past Animal Collective chirps, chants, and librettos. The syllables on the quartet's eighth album (seven studio, one live) are even less stuttered than those on the lovely pop-cycle, Feels. (Of course, befitting a psychedelic swirl, storylines remain suitably jumbled.) Overlapping nicely with its title, much of the narrative's food focused: broccoli, peaches, warm cereal, mildewed rice (yum!), and eating with good friends/girlfriends. Not entirely gormandized, child-scaring fireworks/mountains, magic, Al Green, a dinosaur wing, and the past also spin through the gurgling vocal rounds…
Recorded in Tucson with Scott Colburn, who's spun knobs for Sun City Girls (Arizona's finest) and Neon Bible (not Arcade Fire's finest), the nine songs possess desert heat with fewer stretches of weirdo ambiance; even blustery/blown-out "Winter Wonder Land"'s a melted box of Crayola's. Who cares if the tremulous, asteroid-shooting slow jam "#1" and the extended tunneling of "Cuckoo Cuckoo" are icy? Arizona does get chilly in the winter, sometimes at night. The real stars, though, are bright, sunny, infectious, tricolor trip-pop tunes, some of the group's strongest, most vibrant to date: "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. While the cover art's sorta gross, it does make sense: Strawberry Jam is a sweet, almost day-glo mash that leaks more interesting colors the longer you focus on it. If you prefer stranger, older, or even Sung Tongs AC, some of the shine might not be your cup of mushroom tea (no "Visiting Friends" or dancing manatees in sight), but give the record a few listens -- what's lost in length is more than made up for in its syrupy depths.
Note: Everyone's talking Baltimore these days, but remember where Panda Bear, Avey Tare, Geologist, and this other Deacon (er, Deakin) incubated before they spread (pun intended?) to Lisbon, New York, and Paris, etc.
Strawberry Jam is out this September on Domino.
UPDATE: By popular demand, the tracklist...
01 "Peacebone" (5:13)
02 "Unsolved Mysteries" (4:25)
03 "Chores" (4:30)
04 "For Reverend Green" (6:34)
05 "Fireworks" (6:50)
06 "#1" (4:32)
07 "Winter Wonder Land" (2:44)
08 "Cuckoo Cuckoo" (5:42)
09 "Derek" (3:01)
Posted at 5:48 PM in Premature Evaluation
Tags: Animal Collective | Avey Tare | Panda Bear
the internet is buzzing with word of a leaked copy of this album floating around. Oh well, I hope it will come sooner than later. This is a buy the album regardless for sure however
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Hella early.
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"this other Deacon" ha!
they should form the Deeky Duo and come out witha Tale of 2 DEEKS LP with the hit song TWIN DEAKS!
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I really wanna see the cover now!
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what's this "other" deacon talk?
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I always love the artwork for animal collective albums. I'm really interested in seeing what they did for this one.
For some reason strawberry jam just sounds like such a cool album name.
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AhhahaHAHAHHAhaHAHHAhahHahhAahahahaha WOWOPOWPOWOPPOWOOOWOPWOPWOOPWOOPWOOPWOPWOOPWOPWOPWOPOWPOWPOWPOWPOW
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please just leak this...if you want to of course...but yeah do it
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at least show us the album art!!
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And in one fell swoop, Stereogum has broken numerous P2P programs after millions of people around the world have flocked to them to look for the new AC leak.
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man. where IS this leak. it's like 4th grade all over again when the asshole in class had the rare dragonzord. even ateaseweb has nothing... just a lot of nerds foaming at the mouth, 25 pages worth.
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SOMEONE LEAK ITTTTTTTTTTTTT
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People on these comment boards are so shameless... stop taking it for granted that you get these albums early in the first place and just wait like everyone else.
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what's the point of waiting?
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wait so now the "premature evalution" section is no longer just about albums that leak recently.. its now just a review section for advances you guys get?
what the fuck is happening around here?
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hehehe i got it and its good
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i got it hehehehe and its gooooog
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I don't get the point with this premature evaluations. You just let us know that you have the album, and we don't. You don't really say how good (or not) the album is... or should we take for granted that each album you write a post like this for is good to you?
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thanks for the premature eval- good to know what's coming.
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Wow, how big is your penis?
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'where do you go' I have reasonable doubt in your case, but if you do in fact have it and it is good, then get all the giggle fits out of you and provide us some valued proof to your character.
I want to hear Fireworks and #1 very much!
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yeah, prove it
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prove it dudes.
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Yes, I can't sleep at night because I keep thinking "maybe Strawberry Jam has shown up now...", but I also understand the absurdity of that constant thought, as well as stereogums inability to move the process along/leak it.
However, I just wish that maybe you guys could give a better description of the songs, besides vague terms like "blustery/blown-out."
What do "Winter Wonder Land," "Unsolved Mysteries" (no mention above) and "Derek" (no mention above) really sound like? Everything else has been played live before, and the descriptions approx match up with how they sound (except #1, which I have a bootleg of, and still have no idea what it sounds like).
All I want from Stereogum is an addendum/update, with a more thorough description, since you guys seem to be the only freaking people on the internet who have heard the album (or, at least, are talking about it).
Also, could someone leak it please now?
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Neon Bible is Arcade Fire's finest, by the way...
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i wish i had known this was recorded in my town so i could have stalked mr. bear
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thanks for the premature evaluation, i think it gives us a general sense in which to interpret the overall peice, or, ehm, a sense in which to approch the album. good stuff.
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yes yes, how about letting the rabid fans prematurely evaluate the album. we're not experienced enough
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For Reverend Green is easily the best song on the album.
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just because one of you doesn't know what fireworks sounds like, there's a live version?? a couple, actually. and unsolved mysteries has leaked, too.
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Timberlake > The Arcade Fire
actually, anything pwns The Arcade Fire.
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So far, "Peacebone", "Unsolved Mysteries", "Chores", "For Reverend Green", "#1", and "Winter Wonder Land" have leaked.
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Yeah, I agree that "Rev. Green" is the best that I've heard of the album version. I love "Now I think it's alright to feel inhuman." But possibly it's a bit too...bombastic. But I love all the live versions I've heard of "Fireworks." I don't know, I just don't really think that this will be the most brilliant of the albums. But may be hearing the album in its entirety, not just leaks will help. Defintly seems like the words and voice are the central figures on the album as well as the motif of repeating a percussive element or riff throughout a whole song without varying it. Okay, may be I've written a bit too much now so I'll stop. :)
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hey. the album is indeed floating around for any of you who are skeptical. I have 80 percent of it.. I still have yet to find a place you can snag the whole thing but so far all anyone seems to have are For Reverand Green, Chores, Unsolved Mysteries, Winter Wonderland, #1 (no, not a bootleg), and Peacebone of course. Derek, Fireworks, and Cuckoo Cuckoo are the only ones i havent heard.
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http://ritmono.blogspot.com/
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i think he's talking about dan deacon...i.e baltimore scene
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Found a copy here, also got a copy on order.
http://www.mediafire.com/?cyoj7e2cjcm
http://rapidshare.com/files/41089295/Strawberry_Jam.zip
Check this forum out for some pretty good stuff too
http://forum.o2.pl/temat.php?id_p=5198835&start=180
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I love it.
I love nearly every full length they've released, but this one may somehow top all of them.
It's addicting.
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The Album is great...
maybe one of my favourite animal collective albums yet...
i love it...if you want the leak, message me on mspace or yahoo.
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nothing but love for it all. get your copy asap.
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I just heard the whole album, Strawberry Jam is incredibfuckingly good. I discovered the leak after a fellow AC-loving friend told me to check LIMEWIRE and type only strawberry jam in the album box. Now that I have told you guys this, please let me insist that you BUY THE ALBUM ANYWAY. It's so good you will probably want to. Enjoy.
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