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CRITIC REVIEWS
80
As the mixed reviews for last year’s Painting With album suggested, a little goes a long way with Animal Collective. Which makes The Painters, a four-track EP of outtakes from the same sessions, possibly the perfect Animal Collective release.
80
What sets The Painters apart is its concision, clocking in at just 13 minutes. Usually, Avey, Panda, (Deak,) and Geo are unafraid to let their songs extend into infinity. Here, hooks are paramount.
70
Animal Collective exchange the watery ambience and noisy abrasion that coloured past successful albums for drier and more present percussion, shorter and more immediate songs, and a new fascination with hocketing vocals.
61
While it’s a reasonably compelling elaboration on its predecessor’s synth-splattering aesthetic, it’s unlikely to change anyone’s mind about this version of the group’s sound.
50
Like with its full-length counterpart, this is an EP that abounds with ideas, but they often clash against each other when vying for the listener’s attention.
Better than the majority of what was on Painting With, but Animal Collective still tries to hard to be "weird" with their annoying instrumentation and unnecessarily changing vocal inflections. Jimmy Mack is a great pop song, and Goalkeeper is pretty good as well, but Kinda Bonkers is what would be one of the more mediocre songs on PW and Peacemaker is just bad.
For a band that had become known for pushing boundaries in terms of quality and/or experimentation on EPs, this came off as quite a meh. A couple of these tracks could've been swapped with a couple from Painting With and made that experience better.
I guess it’s a bit better than “Painting With” in terms of variety but the tracklist can feel rushed at times.
Kinda Bonkers: 7
Peacemaker: 8
Goalkeeper: 4
Jimmy Mack: 9
Score:
7
Good
Kinda Bonkers: 7
Peacemaker: 8
Goalkeeper: 4
Jimmy Mack: 9
Score:
7
Good
Animal Collective keeps it weird and surprisingly boring on the companion EP to their latest effort Painting With, which was just as underwhelming as this new material.
Fav tracks: Jimmy Mack.
Least fav track: Kinda Bonkers.
Fav tracks: Jimmy Mack.
Least fav track: Kinda Bonkers.
Painting With gone... right?!
Surprisingly good, even though there are only 4 tracks and one of them is disgustingly bad (Goalkeeper)
Surprisingly good, even though there are only 4 tracks and one of them is disgustingly bad (Goalkeeper)
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Added on: February 13, 2017
