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The Animal Spirits (James Holden album)

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The Animal Spirits
Colorful ribbons hanging from a tree branch
Studio album by
James Holden and The Animal Spirit
Released3 November 2017 (2017-11-03)
Recordedmid-2016
StudioSacred Walls, London, England, United Kingdom
Genre
Length48:38
LabelBorder Community
ProducerJames Holden
James Holden and The Animal Spirit chronology
The Inheritors
(2013) 		The Animal Spirits
(2017) 		A Cambodian Spring
(2019)

The Animal Spirits is a 2017 studio album by British electronic musician James Holden. It features the musician performing jazz-influenced with a live band, in a break from his usual studio work and has received positive reviews from critics for this experimentation.

Reception

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Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
AnyDecentMusic?7.7/10[3]
Metacritic81/100[4]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[5]
Exclaim!8/10[6]
The Financial Times[7]
The Guardian[2]
The Line of Best Fit8/10[8]
Pitchfork7.4/10[9]
The Observer[1]
Record Collector[10]
The Skinny[11]

Editors at AnyDecentMusic? scored this album a 7.7 out of 10, aggregating 17 reviews.[3] According to the review aggregator Metacritic, The Animal Spirits received "universal acclaim" based on a weighted average score of 81 out of 100 from 15 critic scores.[4]

Editors at AllMusic rated this album 4 out of 5 stars, with critic Liam Martin writing that "each track contain enough creative vitality to grow into unique forms" and that the music "feels very organic, brought about by the spontaneity of the performances, the brief window of time in which it was recorded, and Holden's own evolutionary arc".[5] In Exclaim!, Daniel Sylvester gave this album an 8 out of 10 for being a "gorgeous, absorbing and wonderfully unkempt mix of psych, jazz, folk and electronic to infiltrate the listener's psyche".[6] Ludovic Hunter-Tilney of The Financial Times rated it 4 out of 5 stars, calling it "an impressive testament to Holden’s artistic restlessness" and praising Holden's choice to use a full band for this album.[7] John Lewis of The Guardian gave this album 3 out of 5 stars, favorably comparing this work to Alice Coltrane, but critiquing Etienne Jaumet's saxophone playing.[2] At The Line of Best Fit, Janne Oinonen rated The Animal Spirits 8 out of 10, stating that "it says something of the success of Holden's new approach that the tracks where the ensemble is more subdued are the least effective" and calling this a "triumph" that is "simultaneously more overtly experimental yet more easily accessible" than most of Holden's work.[8] Loud and Quiet's Sam Walton rated this release a 9 out of 10, characterizing it as "50 minutes of undeniably chopsy playing" that has "the emotive range of Holden’s compositions that lend the album its lasting appeal beyond knockabout jam-band fun".[12]

Emily Mackay of The Observer gave this album 3 out of 5 stars, calling it "a giddy maelstrom of cosmic prog, krautrock, techno and psych-folk".[1] Chal Raven's review for Pitchfork Media scored The Animal Spirits a 7.4 out of 10, calling this "colossal" leap from Holden's earlier work, leaving him "now a bandleader of a live ensemble rather than a solitary synth programmer, [so] he has opened the door to an entirely different sort of career for himself, one where concerns for the dancefloor shrink away to nothing, and the possibilities of repetition are infinite".[9] Editors of The Quietus chose this for Album of the Week and critic Anna Wood called it "brilliant" for melding jazz and rave music, calling it "quite a feat to create something so universal, something that uses so many influences to push outside of time and place, without erasing any of the specifics".[13] In Record Collector, Alex Neilson scored this release 4 out of 5 stars, stating that it "sticks to a broadly similar blueprint [as Holden's previous work] – kaleidoscopic electronics, abstract tonescapes and ethnographic samples – but this album owes more to cosmic jazz than its Pagan Britain-inspired predecessor".[10] Paul Clarke of Resident Advisor called this "as close as [Holden has] come to transcendence".[14] In a five-star review for The Skinny, Corrie Innes called this album "a dizzying, immersive work which blends natural and synthetic sounds together – shot through with jazz and Moroccan influences – to create a cinematic world that’s as expansive and diverse as it is terse and claustrophobic, and it's stunning".[11] For Spin, Andy Cush wrote that The Animal Spirits is "a remarkable album, both in its hybridized acoustic-electric sonics and its atmosphere of communal celebration".[15]

Track listing

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All songs written by James Holden, except where noted.

  1. "Incantation for Inanimate Object" – 1:42
  2. "Spinning Dance" (Liza Bec and Holden) – 5:30
  3. "Pass Through the Fire" – 6:26
  4. "Each Moment Like the First" – 4:57
  5. "5 The Beginning & End of the World" – 6:40
  6. "Thunder Moon Gathering" (Marcus Hamblett and Holden) – 7:28
  7. "The Animal Spirits" – 5:38
  8. "The Neverending" – 4:30
  9. "Go Gladly into the Earth" (Etienne Jaumet) – 5:52

Personnel

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"Incantation for Inanimate Object"

"Spinning Dance"

  • Liza Bec – recorder
  • Reef Caribbean – vocals
  • Lascelle Gordon – percussion
  • James Holden – modular synth, vocals
  • Tom Page – drums

"Pass Through the Fire"

  • Marcus Hamblett – cornet
  • James Holden – modular synth
  • Etienne Jaumet – saxophone
  • Tom Page – drums

"Each Moment Like the First"

  • James Holden – modular synth
  • Tom Page – drums

"The Beginning & End of the World"

  • Lascelle Gordon – percussion
  • Marcus Hamblett – cornet
  • James Holden – modular synth
  • Etienne Jaumet – saxophone
  • Tom Page – drums

"Thunder Moon Gathering"

  • Liza Bec – Ghaita mizmar
  • Lascelle Gordon – percussion
  • James Holden – modular synth
  • Etienne Jaumet – saxophone
  • Tom Page – drums

"The Animal Spirits"

  • Liza Bec – Tenore recorder
  • Lascelle Gordon – percussion
  • James Holden – modular synth
  • Etienne Jaumet – saxophone
  • Tom Page – drums

"The Neverending"

  • Marcus Hamblett – cornet
  • James Holden – modular synth
  • Etienne Jaumet – saxophone
  • Tom Page – drums

"Go Gladly into the Earth"

  • Marcus Hamblett – cornet
  • James Holden – modular synth
  • Etienne Jaumet – saxophone
  • Tom Page – drums

Technical personnel

  • Jack Featherstone – layout
  • James Holden – recording, mixing, production, art direction
  • Eric James – mastering at Philosophers Barn Mastering
  • Katherine Mager – photography
  • Gemma Sheppard – art direction

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c Mackay, Emily (5 November 2017). "James Holden and the Animal Spirits: The Animal Spirits review – a dizzying fusion". Music. The Observer. Guardian Media Group. ISSN 0029-7712. OCLC 50230244. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
  2. ^ a b c Lewis, John (2 November 2017). "James Holden & the Animal Spirits: The Animal Spirits review – shimmering astral jazz". Music. The Guardian. Guardian Media Group. ISSN 1756-3224. OCLC 60623878. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
  3. ^ a b "The Animal Spirits by James Holden reviews | AnyDecentMusic". AnyDecentMusic?. n.d. Retrieved 14 July 2023.
  4. ^ a b "The Animal Spirits by James Holden Reviews and Tracks – Metacritic". Metacritic. Fandom, Inc. n.d. Retrieved 14 July 2023.
  5. ^ a b Martin, Liam (n.d.). "James Holden – The Animal Spirits". AllMusic. RhythmOne. Retrieved 14 July 2023.
  6. ^ a b Sylvester, Daniel (7 November 2017). "James Holden and the Animal Spirits The Animal Spirits". Album Reviews. Exclaim!. ISSN 1207-6600. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
  7. ^ a b Hunter-Tilney, Ludovic (10 November 2017). "James Holden and the Animal Spirits: The Animal Spirits—'wild yet also mesmerising'". Life & Arts. The Financial Times. ISSN 0307-1766. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
  8. ^ a b Oinonen, Janne (5 November 2017). "Electronica auteur James Holden's third album is an assuredly organic cosmic jazz odyssey". Album Reviews. The Line of Best Fit. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
  9. ^ a b Raven, Chal (8 November 2017). "James Holden and the Animal Spirits: The Animal Spirits Album Review". Albums. Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
  10. ^ a b Neilson, Alex (8 November 2017). "The Animal Spirits | James Holden & The Animal Spirits". Album Reviews. Record Collector. No. 473. ISSN 0261-250X. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
  11. ^ a b Innes, Corrie (30 October 2017). "James Holden & The Animal Spirits album review". Arts & Entertainment / Music / Reviews / Albums. The Skinny. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
  12. ^ Walton, Sam (30 October 2017). "James Holden & the Animal Spirits – The Animal Spirits". Reviews. Loud and Quiet. No. 90. ISSN 2049-9892. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
  13. ^ Wood, Anna (2 November 2017). "Communion: James Holden & The Animal Spirits' The Animal Spirits". Album of the Week. The Quietus. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
  14. ^ Clarke, Paul (10 November 2017). "James Holden & The Animal Spirits – The Animal Spirits". Reviews > Albums. Resident Advisor. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
  15. ^ Cush, Andy (13 November 2017). "Review: James Holden's The Animal Spirits Is An Ecstatic Fusion Of The Electronic And Acoustic". New Music >> Reviews. Spin. ISSN 0886-3032. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
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