Painting With is not only the best Animal Collective album since 2009 (and arguably their best ever), but it could also go down as the closest thing this generation will have to getting a new Pet Sounds.
Painting With is striking because it manages to distill the essence of Animal Collective into 12 slices of bite-size psych-pop that have the punchy immediacy of a Ramones album.
Although the album revels in its sonic clutter (it’s remarkable how they can make percussive rhythms sound both primitive and absurdly futuristic), there are tracks scattered throughout to catch your breath.
There’s a time and place for material this demanding of the listeners’ attention, and it does take repeated listens for the album to really make sense, but when the mood fits, Painting With hits the spot like only they can.
Far from clinical, it is a much sparser effort than previous albums, relying primarily on filtered vocals and electronic percussion, while modular synthesisers rasp and twist.
Undeniably great sounding, the record puts Animal Collective's brightest colors forward and, if history is any indication, is no predictor whatsoever of what they may do next.
Overall, ‘Painting With’ is a dizzying, lurid treat, almost too much to take in, craving its natural habitat. And it’ll really come alive out in the wild.
Animal Collective’s latest sees them painting with confidence, acrylics, dinosaurs, Bob Ross, a twist, and a wipe out.
An album about doing away with boundaries, escaping definition, and running riot across a whole everywhere world of possibilities, Animal Collective have discovered that everywhere portal key they’re searching for in ‘Painting With’.
It's as weird an album as any Animal Collective has made ... but for both its earnest, uninhibited sense of play and the impeccable pop craft that organizes it all, underlying even its most eccentric moments, Painting With is also a uniquely affecting one.
Painting With relies on minimal beats and textures to become instantly familiar, comfortable, and fun from the get-go.
Animal Collective is capable of crafting self-serious, masterful records; Painting With shows that the group is perhaps even better at making something meaningful when it loosens up.
On this record the band seem to be firmly doing exactly what they want and not simply fulfilling the inevitability of the next thing. There are some striking, startling and sublime moments on Painting With, even if it is at times a little dis-jointed.
The songs just hit liftoff five times faster than ever before, driven hard by Panda Bear's cartoonishly expressive slapstick-EDM beats. The results are weirdly addictive and enjoyably absurd.
Part of what has made Animal Collective so revered is their disregard for traditional song structure and melody. They’re still testing those limits on Painting With, but the product rarely feels as groundbreaking.
Painting With feels, more than anything, like a kind of construction project: Each sound meticulously built and only faintly familiar, each second crammed with doodads, as though the band was worried either they or their audience might get bored.
Some tracks ... aren’t actually as immediate as you would want them to be.
Amid the stuff that seems to be going out of its way to drive you up the wall, there are moments when the album works to pretty dazzling effect.
A record that has moments of brilliance but by virtue of trying to be a novelty record, actually comes closer to being a rehash of their previous work.
Painting With is arguably the most melodic of Animal Collective's many records, and yet, it's also one of the least memorable — by the album's end, it's hard to recall much about the compositions here, even after a number of run-throughs.
Animal Collective still have plenty of whimsical creativity left in them, but on Painting With they mostly color inside the lines.
Painting With feels just far too interpolated, and even familiar, to truly grasp, though through its failures it manages to somehow bring them one step closer to achieving those awe-inspiring moments of yore.
Painting With is unmistakably an Animal Collective album, but in its eager familiarity, it ultimately neglects the one all-important quality of any Animal Collective record: novelty.
This is turbo-charged psych rock that leaves you feeling that you’ve experienced a rollercoaster ride through Willy Wonka’s factory on acid. For the most part, it’s exhilarating in its immediacy, but occasionally it becomes overwhelmingly nauseating.
The songs here offer glimpses of hope that there is plenty of magic and power left in these humans, that the future holds another singular release from their camp. Painting With lacks the consistency to be that work.
There is nothing inherently terrible about Painting With—it’s generally a pleasant record by most standards—it is the first Animal Collective record that feels like it has no place in this world, neither in their narrative or in relation to indie rock in general, which is striking, considering the tremendous influence they once had.
It is ... quite irritating: the trio push the record's formula into borderline novelty territory, via cutesy samples and saccharine sweet excess that masks the humanity of their best work.
It's the sound of a band ingesting a whole load of cheap, brightly colored plastic toys and vomiting them back up all over a record.
๐๐ป๐ถ๐บ๐ฎ๐น ๐๐ผ๐น๐น๐ฒ๐ฐ๐๐ถ๐๐ฒ'๐ ๐๐ถ๐๐ฐ๐ผ๐ด๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ฝ๐ต๐: ๐ฃ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ป๐๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐ช๐ถ๐๐ต
“Their most accessible album to date”
~James Acaster, on Painting With by Animal Collective
There’s not much more to say, to be honest. Regarding Animal Collective’s 10th studio album, Painting With, I find myself agreeing with Mr. Acaster and @Knewnie; it’s accessible, it’s got some decent ... read more
Big oof. It always sucks when you decided to listen to more albums from an artist you enjoyed a few projects from and stumble across something just not that good. Considering I heard their two most acclaimed albums and also wanted to hear their debut, I also wanted to get a glimpse into what they are doing these days and decided to check out this album instead of the ambient one.
I mean this has all the fundamentals of an Animal Collective record but lacks the edge, creativity, and zaniness ... read more
I guess we will never know what they’re painting with
Not a bad record here! Jumping around a little bit in their Discog I landed on Painting With, which honestly is a bit of an inoffensive and decent listen. A lot of the sounds on this record reminds me a ton of stuff that’s on Strawberry Jam or Marriweather, but I think what’s missing for me is just the stickier songwriting. It’s really well produced and put together, but I don’t find there to be as much ... read more
I don’t see why this is hated I genuinely enjoyed this more than a lot of other AnCon albums
When this album is good, it's great. 'Golden Gal' and 'Floridada' are exemplars of the techniques they use on this LP and are joyful experiences to listen to.
However, on other tracks, even when the song writing is solid, those same techniques become grating and begin to feel more like gimmicks.
Another interesting album from Animal Collective nonetheless.
1 | Floridada 4:05 | 85 |
2 | Hocus Pocus 3:16 | 69 |
3 | Vertical 4:14 | 71 |
4 | Lying in the Grass 3:34 | 65 |
5 | The Burglars 2:43 | 71 |
6 | Natural Selection 2:41 | 63 |
7 | Bagels in Kiev 2:48 | 67 |
8 | On Delay 3:48 | 69 |
9 | Spilling Guts 1:58 | 61 |
10 | Summing the Wretch 3:08 | 58 |
11 | Golden Gal 4:41 | 79 |
12 | Recycling 4:06 | 64 |
#80 | / | Earbuddy |