Animal Collective

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Animal Collective is an experimental rock band founded in Baltimore in 2000. Its lineup consists of Avey Tare (David Porter), Panda Bear (Noah Lennox), Deakin (Josh Dibb) and Geologist (Brian Weitz), who have known each other since childhood and began to experiment with mind-altering drugs and psychedelic music in high school.

Because of the band's stance as a "collective", not every member of the band appears on every album (for example, Deakin is absent on Merriweather Post Pavilion, Geologist doesn't appear on Campfire Songs and only Avey Tare and Panda Bear perform on Sung Tongs). Panda Bear has released four solo albums since 1998, and Avey Tare has one of his own.

Their music has kept psychedelic influences, but their hit album Merriweather Post Pavillion has made it more accessible to a mainstream audience without changing much of their overall sound.

Discography:
  • Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They've Vanished (2000), as Avey Tare and Panda Bear
  • Danse Manatee (2001), as Avey Tare, Panda Bear and Geologist
  • Hollinndagain (2002), as Avey Tare, Panda Bear and Geologist (live album)
  • Campfire Songs (2003), as Campfire Songs
  • Here Comes the Indian (2003)
  • Sung Tongs (2004)
  • Prospect Hummer (2004) EP
  • Feels (2005)
  • People (2006) EP
  • Strawberry Jam (2007)
  • Water Curses (2008) EP
  • Merriweather Post Pavilion (2009)
  • Animal Crack Box (2009) (live album)
  • Fall Be Kind (2009) EP
  • ODDSAC (2010) (A 55-minute "visual album")
Animal Collective provides examples of the following tropes:
  • Album Filler: "Daffy Duck" from Feels and most of Danse Manatee are considered by some fans to be this.
  • Anti-Love Song: Inverted throughout Feels.
  • Careful with That Axe: "Grass" has this in the chorus.
    • A lot of their early music falls into this, in particular "We Tigers".
  • Cool Hat: The head lamp that Geologist wears during live concerts certainly qualifies.
    • Hell, that's the whole reason his nickname is Geologist -- everybody thought he was a miner.
    • The hat with ears that Panda Bear wore during early live appearances and Avey Tare's face-hat both qualify.
  • Digital Piracy Is Evil: Counterexample - they don't really care about the leaking of their albums, but they get quite upset when (like in the case of Strawberry Jam) only a handful of songs were leaked at a time and fans couldn't get the full album experience.
  • Distinct Double Album: The Animal Crack Box is a distinct triple album.
  • Drone of Dread: "Two Sails on a Sound" from Here Comes the Indian and the live-only song "Tuvin" both exemplify this trope.
  • Early Installment Weirdness: Anything before they settled on the name Animal Collective. Spirit They've Gone, Spirit They've Vanished was essentially an Avey Tare solo album with Panda Bear supplying drums, while Danse Manatee and Campfire Songs are both just plain weird.
  • Everything Is an Instrument
  • Fading Into the Next Song: Their song "Graze" fades into "What Would I Want? Sky" off their Fall Be Kind EP, half of everything on Meriweather Post Pavilion fades into the next song, and "Winter Wonderland" fades into "Cuckoo Cuckoo" on Strawberry Jam. Actually, they're just fond of this trope in general.
    • All of their concerts for the past few years have had crossfades between songs, as well.
  • Intercourse with You: "Essplode", "Grass" and especially "Good Lovin' Outside".
  • Last-Note Nightmare: "Who Could Win A Rabbit" ends with about twenty seconds of...really weird looped gurgling noises. The music video makes it so much worse.
  • Lyrical Dissonance: Averted or subverted for the most part. Played straight on Danse Manatee and Campfire Songs, however.
  • Minimalistic Cover Art: The cover of Merriweather Post Pavilion. It's strangely headache-inducing to look at.
  • New Sound Album: Every single album of theirs does this.
  • Old Shame: Subverted. The band is actually quite fond of their abrasive early work.
  • Silly Love Songs: The first half of Feels, with most of the second half being understated breakup songs. Springs back with "Turn Into Something".
  • Singing Simlish
  • Subdued Section: The latter half of their album Feels.
  • Surreal Music Video: "Water Curses" especially, but all of their videos qualify.
  • Textless Album Cover: Very common with the more recent albums. Merriweather Post Pavilion, Strawberry Jam, and Fall Be Kind all apply.
  • Uncommon Time:
    • "Lion in a Coma" off MPP is in 9/8 time.
    • "What Would I Want? Sky" off of their Fall Be Kind EP is in 7/8 time.
    • "I Think I Can" from the same EP is in 9/8, with a section of 6/8.
    • One of the best examples of this trope is "Who Could Win A Rabbit" off of Sung Tongs. It's based in 3/4, but randomly jumps around to 4/4 and has a 5/4 bridge.
    • They seem to be fond of 3/4 time.
      • 3/4 isn't too odd; their fetish for polyrhythms is, however.
    • Most of "For Reverend Green" is in 7/4[1], though the drum beat hangs on 2/4.
    • While it's still technically is 4/4, the syncopation of the drums on Did You See The Words is mad and rather difficult to count along to.
  • What Do You Mean, It Wasn't Made On Drugs?: Their early music definitely was.
  • Word Salad Lyrics
  1. ↑ Or 14/8
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