Tangerine Reef

Animal Collective - Tangerine Reef
Critic Score
Based on 21 reviews
2018 Ratings: #845 / 890
User Score
Based on 373 ratings
2018 Rank: #771
Liked by 6 people
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CRITIC REVIEWS

85
Northern Transmissions
The album is beautifully conceived, and works great as a listen in one sitting. Close your eyes and let the uncanny yet strangely funny sea creatures flit around.
80
NOW Magazine
Fans of AnCoโ€™s more upbeat and animated works probably wonโ€™t love this album, but it is successful in its experimentation and as an affirmation that they have and always will have something unique to bring to the table.
80
PopMatters

Tangerine Reef is a project that may likely polarize Animal Collective fans, and it may not be an ideal jumping-off point for anyone looking to discover this unique band, but it's a worthy addition to their catalog, and it supports a supremely important cause in this day and age.

78
Sputnikmusic
It's not necessarily a masterpiece nor was it ever meant to be a grand statement that'd capture everyone's attention; a low-key unveiling is more fitting, for it's the Collective's return to form, except in a way that nobody expected.
70
Drowned in Sound
The result is an album steeped in murky ambiance and stuffy reverb, celestial and ghostly, minute details strewn across the soundwaves to emulate the floating presences of the minute, drifting sea creatures.
70
AllMusic

Like any visual album, the floating sounds here are probably best experienced in conjunction with the visuals they were created for, but even on their own, there's a calm power that grows as the various passages of Tangerine Reef fade in and out of one another.

69
Pitchfork
The music itself is beautiful and expansive, if slow and occasionally stagnant, and the perspective it asks you to take offers relief from the anxious refrain of climate doom.
62
Paste

With Tangerine Reef, Animal Collective’s second audiovisual album, the band leans deep into its nautical tendencies, crafting a surreal soundtrack for “avant-garde coral macro-videography” (read: underwater footage of coral reefs).

60
Under the Radar

Tangerine Reef has its moments, but it veers in and out of being truly engaging all on its own.

60
The Line of Best Fit

I have no doubt that Tangerine Reef will be a remarkable experience when paired with its visual stimuli, but without it, it is an album hard to recommend.

60
Exclaim!

For fans of Animal Collective's trippier inclinations, Tangerine Reef is a pleasant bit of oceanic escapism. For new listeners or anyone looking for the next "My Girls," this is decidedly inessential.

60
Clash
This might not be as immediate and catchy as previous Animal Collective releases, possibly due to Panda Bearโ€™s absence, but its one of their most transfixing and beguiling.
60
Spectrum Culture
This is the most relaxed and easygoing thing theyโ€™ve billed as a full album in over a decade.
60
Q Magazine
How much you enjoy it will depend on how you feel about largely structureless sonics, but if you just submerge yourself into it, there's plenty to discover.
50
The 405

While Tangerine Reef inspires as a pseudo-political statement regarding the deteriorating environment at the hands of mankind, Animal Collective ultimately disappoints with this record—it’s yet another forgettable checkpoint within the band’s recent run.

50
FLOOD Magazine

Too much of Tangerine Reef feels like ambient murk in service of nothing.

43
A.V. Club

The worst way to engage with Tangerine Reef is by listening to it.

40
The Independent
As an environmental art project raising awareness of endangered coral (it commemorates the 2018 International Year of the Reef), it is laudable. As a listening experience, it is impenetrable.
40
The Observer

In search, perhaps, of something more profound than the Beach Boys-haunted lo-fi surrealism of early albums, or the fizzing avant-garde electropop that became their calling card after 2009 breakthough album Merriweather Post Pavilion, AC plumb depths of paucity more than subtlety in this wilfully desolate expanse of dispassionate vocals and vague, awkward ambience.

30
Tiny Mix Tapes

Tangerine Reef is more like the sound of pretending to experience something profound.

20
NME
By the end of its relentlessly boring sonic onslaught, you may be the one that feels like an endangered species.
Windy
61

๐—”๐—ป๐—ถ๐—บ๐—ฎ๐—น ๐—–๐—ผ๐—น๐—น๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐˜๐—ถ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ'๐˜€ ๐——๐—ถ๐˜€๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ด๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ฝ๐—ต๐˜†: ๐—ง๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ด๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฒ ๐—ฅ๐—ฒ๐—ฒ๐—ณ

AnCo’s 2016 album, Painting With, was a reaction to the growing popularity of reverby soundscapes in music; instead of creating ambient, experimental noises, the record focused on putting together more accessible, happier tunes. That album shows the band ‘settling down’ in a way - it’s a less ... read more

ImpalaLT
39

You’re not Aphex Twin.

Animal Collective made their second huge drop in quality in their career, and this makes me saddened. I loved everything they made from 2004 to 2011, and liked the album that came after.

This album has good intentions. It sounds much better than their sophomore slump, and it’s there to at least attempt to please fans of the likes of Aphex Twin and Boards Of Canada. However, I have a big problem with this album.

It bored me to death throughout almost the ... read more

Supertartory
20

This wasn't a fun listen. I enjoyed the first 2 songs, then I checked how long the album had been playing for... I then started crying. This album is way longer than it has any right to be, this is 52-fucking-minutes of nothing at all. Nothing fucking happens for that length of time, that's almost an hour of textual nothing, and the blandest of bland ambience. This album is meant to sound like being under the sea, but fuck if this is what the ocean sounds like then I'm not going down there, ... read more

pearathon
52

Honk shoo honk shoo. I get this is technically a soundtrack album that's supposed to accompany a video, but it's not like the video makes the music much more interesting. I will admit I'm already not the biggest ambient music enjoyer out there, but idk this feels kind dull even for ambient music. The textures and atmospheres that are built just aren't all that immersive, so it just ends up boring. For the most part it does work as perfectly fine wallpaper music, and there are in fact some ... read more

pawntion
44

esquecível apesar de ter momentos surpreendentemente bonitos, mas que não ficam eficientes pela repetitividade e poucos momentos verdadeiramente interessantes

melhores: Airpipe (To a New Transition)

piores: sei lá, o resto...?

the_marsh
22

sitting here in absolute disbelief WHY did you make an ambient album animal collective

+22 points for being sonic melatonin

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Added on: July 8, 2018