Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
What are your tongs like?, 26 Jan 2005
By A Customer
Wow! Not much music like this around. This is to folk what the Flaming Lips is to, err, Rock. Completely tripped-out but completely accessible, it is acoustic music pushed to its literal extreme, a modern day 'Pipers at the Gates of Dawn'. Underscored by often tribal rhythms, the Collective mix extraordinary vocal harmonies with playful electronics to create richly orchestrated songs that paradoxically retain a campfire spontaneity whilst being unbelievably well crafted. 'Leaf House' opens the album with spectacular vocal harmonies and a pulsing rhythm, two minutes of madness unrivalled on any record this year. 'The Softest Voice' is haunting spectral folk that shows they can play it straight, a kind of acid comedown from the hyperactive rushes of opening two songs. 'Winters Love' builds from a hushed piece of acoustica not dissimilar from some Four Tet and bursts into a new frenetic tempo, building layers of melody until it reaches an impossibly infectious loop of pastoral glory. 'Kids on Holiday' is a demented trip of distorted, dubby bubbliness which is saturated with childish anticipation and peaks with yells of 'Holidays!' and is much better than I can possibly describe. There are lots of other highlights too numerous to discuss, including the animal stomp of 'We Tigers' and the mind-boggling 'Good Lovin Outside', and there are only two let-downs, the over-long Visiting Friends and the weak last track 'Whattit I done', but nothing detracts this from being possibly the only 5 star album this year.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
ADD loafy psych folk, 28 Nov 2004
Similar to the reviewer previous, i caught this band live with Mum and was mightily confused... An array of almost Taliking Heads rythmics, early Mercury Rev madness, primal shouting and Tyrannasaurus Rex flambouyance but still all over the place yet exceptionally controlled in their song structures... The record lived up to everything you see live. Initially it confuses and has a minor tendancy to trundel off down into teenage acidland territory but after a few listens becomes an obsessive listen. Join the daily habit folks, this truly is a little orange flavoured little peach that makes you want to swing from the handrails on the underground and shout in glee.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Tung Songs, 4 Feb 2007
If Mum or Sigur Ros got invaded by a bunch of acid-tripping folkies, then the result might be something like "Sung Tongs," another unspeakably mad album by the Animal Collective. This bizarre little band continues to push the limits of traditional songcraft and melodies, and leave you feeling mildly nostalgic. Maybe a little dizzy too.
It opens with a spinning, screechy noise -- which would seem to indicate hard-rock to follow. Wrong. Instead, a mellow folky melody and murmuring vocals, which suddenly build and multiply into a chorus of creepy voices. "Leaf House" undulates through a fragmented melody, full of distorted vocals and flowery acid folk.
If that hasn't knocked you off your chair, then the following songs might. "Who Could Win A Rabbit" sounds like your basic country-folk song on mushrooms, and following it is an arc of colourful songs: gossamer-thin guitar ballads, sketchy little experimental songs, hallucinatory folk, spare guitar pop, and.... well, just about everything else.
"Sung Tongs" isn't an easy album to get into -- it's all about the atmosphere, rather than something you can get up and dance to. Granted, a few of the tracks are quite catchy, but in the end it's all about the dark, colourful, disturbing and somehow soothing feeling that the music leaves you with.
It also has some remnants of "Here Comes the Indian," with "We Tigers" turning into a tribal beat-and-chant affair. But most of the time, the Collective tries out other stuff, like paring down the music to just guitar, vocals and spoons. Other times it's a massive, intoxicating swirl of rippling guitar and bass, bands of eerie synth, rattling noises, and the occasional sample. What IS that bubbling sludgey noise?
The Collective also sounds more comfortable here, with chipper vocals and lots of handclaps. You can't make out much of the lyrics, but they're more about being part of the lyrics than about being lyrics -- "Good day outside/Tribe of life and mine and yours/You're so good and natural/Arms appeal/Cause your so/close." Well, whatever.
"Sung Tongs" featured the Animal Collective expanding their already-strange sound even further, until nobody could hope to catch up to the strangeness. Definitely worth hearing.
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