After the complete critical dismissal of Panda Bear's Person Pitch (TMT Review) and the unanimous cheer heard 'round the world for Avey Tare & Kria Brekkan's Pullhair Rubeye (TMT Review), the stakes are running high for our fuzzy friends. Who can predict what the final reception will be to Animal Collective's next slab of sugar-sqronk? Fortunately, while we knit our brows and ruminate on the group's proper artistic trajectory until we need to grab our albuterol inhalers, AC keeps right on churning out records. And now they're just about ready to put out a new one, essentially forcing us to renew our subscriptions to Asthma Explorers.
Strawberry Jam is its name and should be arriving sometime in September through Domino. Some of the album's tracks have been tested on the road, while others are fresher than strawberry jam before it gets all sour and watery, or maybe it's the bread that's making this taste weird (Is it the bread? Because I bought seven-grain this time instead of the usual 100% whole-wheat, so do different breads go bad at different rates, or maybe I didn't even check the expiration date before I picked it up, no wait, the seal was already broken on the jar of jam, okay, mystery solved, though now I need a ride to Meijer, and I know you don't like to take me twice in one week).
In a bestial celebration of their forthcoming disc, the Collective will be touring through the rest of May and then a few scattered dates in the months after. Please bring napkins; the Marfa ballroom can get sticky.
Tracklisting:
* Sir Richard Bishop
$ Danielson
! Timothy McManus rules