CD Review

So you want to start an art rock band huh? Some artists like Sigur Ros have it easy, where they plaster dreamy sounds over a foreign language, making you second guess the motives. Other artists like Brian Eno prefer to paint a more abstract picture. However, there is another band out there amongst the Mars Voltas, challenging for the title of most innovative rock act - Animal Collective. The New York "collective" builds from the psychedelic mischief of their prior release Sung Tongs, on their latest Feels, a playground mural of sound that is almost childish, yet entertainingly instrumental in a mix of both folk and electronic.

Songs with the titles of "Daffy Duck," "The Purple Book" and "Bees," may sound immature from the outside, but build to unpredictable pieces in the end. There are no signs on Feels of familiar verse/chorus/verse structure, instead the compositions form a splattering of acoustic guitars, effects, piano trickles and odd-ball lyrics. Take the lead single "Grass" where you get random hoots and hollers, over a country stomp on acid, and you have the album’s biggest hope for a "pop" song. "The Purple Beat," with its abrasive shouts, will either give you a giant headache or make you smirk in awe, while "Bees" takes a page from the mind trips of early day Flaming Lips. Taking nods from My Bloody Valentine, Syd Barrett and Eno might make for an artsy listen, but for Animal Collective, Feels is just another commitment to studio experimentation in the life of an art rock band.