To The End Of It

Animal Collective “Prester John”

The most striking sound in “Prester John” is the element of it that sounds the least like Animal Collective as we’ve known them for the past 20 years – a central keyboard riff that’s crisp, clean, and traditionally groovy. It’s one of the most normal sounds I can remember showing up on any of their records but it ends up feeling like the weirdest part of a song that’s otherwise working with very classic Animal Collective approaches to musical textures, ambiance, and vocal harmonies. The vocal parts – mainly sung by Panda Bear – are lovely in a way that feels very casual and lived-in, which I suppose is a result of this song having been mutating through various live incarnations over the past few years. Revision through live iteration has been a big part of the group’s process all along but at this stage where the final studio rendition can feel confident and organic rather than tight and overworked, which I think happened on a lot of their last two proper Animal Collective albums. With this they’ve circled back to the earnest loveliness of the Merriweather Post Pavilion era but with far less reliance on the haziness of heavily processed sounds and extreme reverb.

Buy it from Bandcamp.