Review Summary: A colorful slab of psychedelic warmth
I never anticipated that I’d be reviewing an Animal Collective album. For me, they’ve always proved to be one of those ever-frustrating bands, the type that fellow music fans I respect seem to adore, while proving completely elusive to my own ears. The wild praise which is thrown about for a revered work like
Fall Be Kind , “an atmospheric masterpiece” and the like, always draws me in every few years, only to be disappointed once more. Sure, it’s a good EP, but what am I missing? That said, I quite liked Avey Tare’s 2019 solo effort
Cows On Hourglass Pond , and the lush nature of Animal Collective’s latest album artwork turned out to be hard to resist, so I gave this a go. Now here we are…
Time Skiffs is a bit of an odd bird to write about. It’s an album with numerous fairly obvious defects, but also one that exudes a sort of mellow sunniness which ends up being quite addictive. It’s styled (I suspect) as a summer album, but with freezing rain and frigid winds lashing the windows, I’ve been turning to this record over and over, leaving many theoretically better-suited albums from a busy release week untouched.
As might be gathered from the first paragraph, I’m far from an expert on Animal Collective’s discography as a whole, especially their recent output, which I gather hasn’t been particularly well-received. I’m therefore not in a position to adjudicate definitively if
Time Skiffs is a “return to form” or really to compare it broadly to anything else in their considerable body of work. However, what can be stated is that the nine tunes which comprise
Time Skiffs are a fairly accessible and engaging piece of folk-tinged psych. In discussion of the album, comparisons to Fleet Foxes have cropped up repeatedly, and as a point of reference it’s quite apt. While the songs here are, frankly, just
weirder than virtually all of Fleet Foxes’ output, they share a certain DNA, a tuneful sophistication mixed with a sense of brightness. The sound here is also quite nostalgic, both because its melodies periodically provide a sense of “ye-olde medieval times” and because of the vaguely Eastern-ish rhythms which pop up and evoke some of the Beatles’ ragga experimentations.
The weaknesses of
Time Skiffs are readily apparent. Notably, a number of these songs overstay their welcome (and worse, it’s not just the lengthier tracks which suffer from this ailment, even if the stretched-out “Strung With Everything” proves to be one of the more egregious offenders). Additionally, this is a release which thrives on atmosphere rather than memorable moments, which are rather sparse. The catchy grooviness of “Prester John” and the melodious rambling of “Cherokee” are two clear highlights, but they’re the exception to the rule. However, beyond these issues
Time Skiffs simply has a lot of merit. There are two remarkably impressive aspects of the record. First, Animal Collective managed to accomplish a neat trick here (don’t ask me how): while a bunch of the individual songs go on longer than they need to, the album as a whole doesn’t feel overstuffed, and more often than not I’m eager to drench myself its sun-soaked vibes all over again right after finishing a spin. Second, the veteran group has managed to get a long-suffering skeptic to care about their music, indeed, enough to write four mostly-positive paragraphs about this late-career release. What a world!
