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Painting With

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Painting With is the tenth studio album by American experimental pop band Animal Collective, released on February 19, 2016. The album is a follow-up to Centipede Hz (2012), and features contributions from John Cale and Colin Stetson.[2] Three singles have been issued from the album: "FloriDada" (2015), "Lying in the Grass", and "Golden Gal" (both 2016).

For Painting With, the band's line-up consists of Avey Tare (David Portner), Panda Bear (Noah Lennox), and Geologist (Brian Weitz), the same trio which participated for Merriweather Post Pavilion (2009).[3] Deakin (Josh Dibb), who had rejoined the band in November 2010 for Centipede Hz, and toured with them from 2011 to 2013, is absent.[4]

Background and recording

File:Animal Collective - Painting With rehearsals at Drop of Sun Studios in Asheville, North Carolina.png
Dave Portner (left) and Brian Weitz (right) at Drop of Sun Studios in Asheville, North Carolina while rehearsing and writing Painting With

After touring for Centipede Hz (2012), the band felt stressed out, and retreated to individual side-projects. David Portner (Avey Tare) formed Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks, Noah Lennox (Panda Bear) recorded his fifth solo album Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper (2015), and Brian Weitz (Geologist) took care of his newborn daughter for the latter half of 2014.[3] In early 2015, Lennox confirmed that the band would be returning to the studio to record a new album, while Portner intimated in April: "Yeah, over the past few months I’ve been writing some songs. I think we’re starting to have a group of songs that we’re thinking about recording."[5]

In May 2015, Animal Collective began writing and rehearsing new material at Drop of Sun Studios in Asheville, North Carolina[6] and EastWest Studios, Hollywood.[7] The band recorded in the Studio 3 room at EastWest, the same room used by Brian Wilson for the Beach Boys' albums Pet Sounds (1966) and Smile.[8] The album was subsequently mixed at Gang Recording Studio in Paris, France with Sonny DiPerri.[9] Portner called it "incredible" to record in EastWest: "You really understand that there is an art that goes into building rooms like that. It’s no surprise so many good records have been created there. I think [EastWest’s original constructor] Bill Putnam was a genius."[10] Weitz recalls that while at EastWest: "The guys would deliver [instruments to us] ... they'd be like, 'This was used in Planet of the Apes. These metal rods that make these singing tones' … they're like 'These are from the Poltergeist soundtrack."[3]

Guest appearances include John Cale, who recorded a drone part for the track "Hocus Pocus".[11] Portner explained: "My sister has been working on the visual side of John’s more recent live shows. She discovered that he was actually a fan of our music, which made us really psyched. We had this part that we just couldn’t nail or get to sound right in “Hocus Pocus,” and I really thought we should have someone attempt to do it with a live instrument. Because of the drone-y string sound we wanted to achieve, we all thought John would be great for it."[10]

Music

"On Delay"
"On Delay", the eighth track of the album.
"Golden Gal"
"Golden Gal", the eleventh track of the album and its third single, demonstrating the album's dry vocals and use of modular synthesizers.
Problems playing these files? See media help.

The album's color palette is dominated by modular synthesizers and an array of percussion instruments borrowed from the collection of studio drummer Emil Richards.[3] In contrast to their previous work, Animal Collective decided to eliminate the reverb effects and drawn-out musical passages. Portner commented: "Everything seems drenched in reverb these days, and is so distant. In a way, it was a reaction to that."[3] Weitz added: "We talked about no ambient [passages]. Even [2009's] Merriweather Post Pavilion, people were saying was our poppiest record up to that point, but there still were like long, drawn-out passages of drone. With this one we were just like in and out. No long buildups to get to it, no long outros. We talked about, like, our Ramones record."[3] Lennox elaborated with a comparison to the first Ramones album: "There was this idea of wanting to do something with short songs, with a homogenous energy to the record. ... not that we expected the music to sound like that, but we wanted to do something where the first song revs up the engine, and it kind of just cruises after that. We didn’t want to throw in some ethereal moment. We wanted to do something that blasted away the whole time."[12] The group drew on ideas of the prehistoric, such as cave paintings and dinosaurs, which were used to influence the songwriting process and the recording sessions themselves, "[aiming to eschew] slow jams for a set of songs inspired by more elemental pleasures ... [and] artists who could make a lot happen in a short amount of time," writes Jeremy Gordon.[11]

Promotion and release

Baltimore-Washington International Airport, where Painting With was premiered

On July 15, 2015, EastWest announced that the band had finished recording their new album, the follow-up to Centipede Hz.[13] On November 25, the album premiered over the speakers of Baltimore-Washington International Airport, and played on loop until the evening. Using Sony's Music Track ID system, it was discovered that the airport recordings belonged to an unreleased 12-track Animal Collective album entitled Painting With. A representative of the band responded with "no comment today",[14] while Portner confirmed that "FloriDada", the impending single from the album, would be released on November 30.[14][15] On November 30, "FloriDada" was released and the album and track listing were officially revealed.[2] The same day, both the LP and CD versions of the album were made available for pre-order. Upon pre-ordering the vinyl, users received an immediate download of "FloriDada" as well as an eventual 7" containing two new tracks "Gnip Gnop" and "Hounds of Bairro".[16] On January 28, 2016, a promotional video was released to youtube revealing a new "Painting With" app for iOS. This app allowed early access to the song "Lying in the Grass" for the first time.[17]

The album has three distinct covers painted by Brian DeGraw which individually depict Portner, Lennox, and Weitz.[2]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic71/100[18]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[19]
DIY Mag[20]
Drowned in Sound5/10[21]
The Guardian[22]
Mojo[23]
Pitchfork6.2/10[24]
Pretty Much AmazingB+[25]
Slant[26]
Spin8/10[27]
Uncut[1]

Painting With received mostly positive reviews from contemporary music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 71, based on 34 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews".[18]

Rolling Stone called it "weirdly addictive and enjoyably absurd".[citation needed] Marc Hogan of Spin praised the album for its "richness" in his review, stating, "It’s poppier, in a characteristically warped way, than even Merriweather, the group’s most popular album to date. That’s down to the record’s rarely wavering energy; subtle details abound in the interplay between Lennox and Portner’s near-indistinguishably overlapping yawps, or in the giddy, ping-ponging sonic backdrops, but that’s all a bonus when the songs bounce along like Tigger in a 5 Hour Energy ad."[27] Jamie Atkins of Record Collector compared the album's sound to the soundtrack of the 1992 video game Sonic the Hedgehog 2, "the band sounding like a motley crew of Deadheads and club kids stuck between the Mystic Cave and Oil Ocean zones, in constant fear of Dr Robotnik's frankly unreasonable temper and whichever drill or submarine he might pilot next." It continues: "It does take repeated listens for the album to really make sense, but when the mood fits, Painting Is [sic] hits the spot."[28]

Jamieson Cox of the Verge characterized Painting With as: "bright, tidy, and a little disappointing ... They were the last band you expected to end up sounding workmanlike."[29] Mike Powell of Pitchfork Media added, "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. The human voice, which in the past has given their music not just a so-called human element but a devotional, almost religious glow, has been reduced to a party trick, with Avey Tare and Panda Bear trading syllables like two anxious Globetrotters. The album's best songs—"Golden Gal," "Recycling"—aren't just highlights, they're breathers."[24]

In a negative review, Lee Arizuno of The Quietus called the album "absolute dogshit from start to finish", repeatedly describing each song as "a sing-song number with faux–naïf lyrics ... and EDM belches".[30] Adam Downer of Paste compared it to the "legion of small-time blog bands in the early 2010s ... who could do a decent facsimile of the Animal Collective sound but lacked the intangibles to garner their acclaim ... [the album is] not very noteworthy, the band nowhere close to fulfilling its potential. The scariest thing Painting With leaves behind is the feeling that Animal Collective think that’s perfectly fine."[31]

Track listing

No.TitleLength
1."FloriDada"4:05
2."Hocus Pocus"3:16
3."Vertical"4:14
4."Lying in the Grass"3:34
5."The Burglars"2:43
6."Natural Selection"2:41
7."Bagels in Kiev"2:48
8."On Delay"3:48
9."Spilling Guts"1:58
10."Summing the Wretch"3:08
11."Golden Gal"4:41
12."Recycling"4:06
Total length:41:02

Personnel

Animal Collective
Additional musicians

Charts

Chart (2016) Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[32] 100
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[33] 87
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[34] 121
Irish Albums (IRMA)[35] 91
Portuguese Albums (AFP)[36] 43
UK Albums (OCC)[37] 42
US Billboard 200[38] 46

References

  1. ^ a b Uncut. February 3, 2016. {{cite journal}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  2. ^ a b c Gordon, Jeremy (November 30, 2015). "Animal Collective Announce New Album Painting With, Share "FloriDada"". Pitchfork Media.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Weingarten, Christopher (November 30, 2015). "Animal Collective Talk Escaping Reverb on 'Minimal' 10th Album 'Painting With'". Rolling Stone.
  4. ^ Lynch, Joe (November 30, 2015). "Animal Collective Announces 11th Album 'Painting With,' Shares 'FloriDada'". Billboard.
  5. ^ Hunt, El (April 16, 2015). "Animal Collective, on "Prospect Hummer"'s legacy and returning to the studio". DIY.
  6. ^ "Sound Playground Asheville, NC on Instagram: "Animal Collective writing and rehearsing their 10th LP at Drop of Sun!"". Instagram. Retrieved November 30, 2015.
  7. ^ "Animal Collective Have Finished Recording Their New Album". Pitchfork. Retrieved November 29, 2015.
  8. ^ Fact (July 15, 2015). "Animal Collective finish recording new album in iconic Pet Sounds studio". Factmag.
  9. ^ "Animal Collective Official Online Store - Painting With". November 30, 2015.
  10. ^ a b Carter, Spike (February 18, 2016). "Animal Collective's Avey Tare on Recording in the Same Studio as Pet Sounds". Vanity Fair. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  11. ^ a b c Gordon, Jeremy (January 4, 2016). "Animal Collective's Primitive Future". Pitchfork.
  12. ^ Hunt, El (November 30, 2015). "Animal Collective talk "punchy" new album "Painting With"". DIY.
  13. ^ Gordon, Jeremy (July 15, 2015). "Animal Collective Have Finished Recording Their New Album".
  14. ^ a b Young, Alex (November 25, 2015). "Animal Collective are debuting their new album at BWI Airport right now". Consequence of Sound.
  15. ^ JNSP (November 26, 2015). "Animal Collective podrían sacar disco el lunes". jenesaispop (in Spanish).
  16. ^ "Domino USA". Domino Recording. Retrieved November 30, 2015.
  17. ^ "Animal Collective - Painting With - iOS App Demo". Youtube. Retrieved January 28, 2016.
  18. ^ a b "Painting With". Metacritic. Retrieved February 19, 2016.
  19. ^ AllMusic
  20. ^ DIY Mag
  21. ^ DoS
  22. ^ Petridis, Alex (February 11, 2016). "Animal Collective: Painting With review – psychedelic playmates inspire and infuriate". The Guardian.
  23. ^ "Review: Animal Collective - Painting With." Mojo. March 2016. p 94.
  24. ^ a b Powell, Mike (February 16, 2016). "Painting With". Pitchfork.
  25. ^ Frank, Brendan. "Animal Collective's Painting With". Pretty Much Amazing. 15 February 2016.
  26. ^ Mac, Sam C. (February 4, 2016). "Painting With". Slant. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  27. ^ a b Hogan, Marc (February 12, 2016). "Review: Animal Collective Put the Dad in the Dada Movement on 'Painting With'". Spin Magazine. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  28. ^ Atkins, Jamie (February 2016). "Watercolour Curses?". Record Collector. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  29. ^ Cox, Jamieson (February 19, 2016). "Animal Collective's Painting With review: bright, tidy, and a little disappointing". The Verge.
  30. ^ Arizuno, Lee (February 18, 2016). "The Lead Review: Lee Arizuno On Animal Collective's Painting With". The Quietus.
  31. ^ Downer, Adam (February 16, 2016). "Animal Collective: Painting With Review". Paste. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  32. ^ Ryan, Gavin (February 27, 2016). "ARIA Albums: Hilltop Hoods Debut at No 1". Noise11. Retrieved February 27, 2016.
  33. ^ "Ultratop.be – Animal Collective – Painting With" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved February 27, 2016.
  34. ^ "Ultratop.be – Animal Collective – Painting With" (in French). Hung Medien. Retrieved February 27, 2016.
  35. ^ "GFK Chart-Track Albums: Week 8, 2016". Chart-Track. IRMA. Retrieved February 27, 2016.
  36. ^ "Portuguesecharts.com – Animal Collective – Painting With". Hung Medien. Retrieved March 2, 2016.
  37. ^ "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved February 27, 2016.
  38. ^ "Animal Collective Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved March 1, 2016.
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