Review Summary: Animal Collective, along with Danny Perez, have crafted a truly unforgettable aural and visual experience with "ODDSAC."
Animal Collective, a band with an indelible, yet seemingly concealed presence among the music scene, have been quietly changing the face of indie music for the better part of the last decade. Pushing boundaries of what the genre, and music itself can actually be, the band has been blazing many a trail with each release, tearing down conventions in a seemingly nonchalant fashion. However, that has been the appeal of Animal Collective, with the obscurities of their deceptively simplistic music taking center stage. With the band’s 2009 outing,
Merriweather Post Pavilion, we saw the band more approachable than ever, with the indie-pop tunes reveling in a blissful summery glow, embracing everything they had been doing up to this point. With their latest release,
ODDSAC, we see the band retaining this approachability, while at the same time indulging into the incredibly bizarre and outlandish.
ODDSAC, a 53-minute soundtrack accompanying a long form video, feels like a symbiotic relationship between the band Animal Collective and film maker Danny Perez. Yet the term
music video doesn’t seem to be adequate in describing the project, but rather, it should be seen as an aural and visual experience, with both realms of
ODDSAC melding into a solitary entity. While the music is great on its own, one realizes that it feels kind of empty without the film. That isn’t to say that Animal Collective have in anyway missed the mark, as segments of
ODDSAC feature some of the best moments in the band’s history. However, the band hasn’t really altered their sound since
Merriweather Post Pavilion, retaining a the poppier, more welcoming vibe found on said album. “Tantrum Barb” is a great example of this, as it is incredibly upbeat, featuring a wealth of percussive elements. “What Happened“ offers the one of the project‘s best tracks, featuring a bevy of sounds both bizarre and conventional. It‘s trippy yet wholly contained, and is able to be catchy as well as complex. “Screens”, however, is quite possibly the most awe inspiring track in all of
ODDSAC. It’s oddly polar to its accompanying video segment of a vampire rowing up a stream towards his next victims. It’s beautifully textured, featuring a subtle acoustic guitar and Beach Boys-esque vocal harmonies that make the whole song absolutely unforgettable. Although moments such as these permeate
ODDSAC, the music goes so well with the film, that it seems a little lonely without it. Rest assured though, the soundtrack is still a fantastic listen, with or without the film, but Perez’s work just adds so much more to what is already excellent.
Where Animal Collective’s soundtrack is less effective without the film, Danny Perez’s contribution to
ODDSAC feels absolutely incomplete without the music. Literally, the film is nigh incomprehensible in respect to plot, with the music and moods being the sole unifying factor of each film segment. However, the project is what it is because of his work. Just as with the music of Animal Collective, Danny Perez’s film is a surreal excursion, and as likely to be beautiful as it is terrifyingly complex. The film features bizarre moments of surrealism, oddly hearkening back to a David Lynch style of film making, where nothing should be taken at face value. A Vampire solemnly rowing a boat up a stream, a white haired man furiously drumming in a rocky field, and disturbing humanoid creatures dancing with fire all make their unforgettable appearance on
ODDSAC, adding alluring yet revolting qualities to the project. To mix with the more psychedelic aspects of the soundtrack, Perez coats everything in a trippy veneer, with kaleidoscope-esque bouts of color and imagery bombarding the screen. It is honestly more tasteful and cohesive than it sounds, as it truly is more than a sum of its parts. While Perez may not set the world on fire with his film making, he certainly has crafted an unforgettable companion to Animal Collective’s soundtrack.
To say
ODDSAC is a strange and indulgent foray into the realm of unintelligible psychedelic film making would be true, but only at face value. On the surface, none of it makes any sense, with the entire package feelingly like a convoluted mess of an acid trip. However, the years of work put into the project really do show, making this more than a mashing of separate tracks and short films. That being said,
ODDSAC isn’t really
brilliant or revolutionary, as, Pink Floyd did something to this effect decades ago. However, this is Animal Collective at their finest, with the band hitting a creative peak in respect to the rest of their accomplishments. Although it will assuredly require more than one watching,
ODDSAC will eventually reveal its clever and beautifully crafted core to those willing to delve deep enough into its murky depths of strangeness and obscurity.
