Animal Collective - FloriDada (track review)

Perhaps the most important question to ask when informed about the existence of new Animal

Collective material, right after “Where can I find it?” is “Who was involved in creating it?”.  Throughout their extensive career their best material has been concocted by a certain variant of the collective.  The news that Avey Tare, Panda Bear and Geologist, the same line-up which produced the outstanding “Merriweather Post Pavilion”, would be the members involved in the creation of the new album only heightened my expectations.  And the new single “FloriDada” doesn’t disappoint.

It almost has more in common with the freak folk of “Sung Tongs”, another absolutely fantastic album, as the distorted voices collide and crash over one another in a bizarre vocal stew.  The overall accessibility of the tribal drums and bouncy effervescent samples are other aspects of “Sung Tongs” that couldn't be more welcome.  No one can take simplistic art-pop and paint it in outlandish psychedelia in the same way that Animal Collective can, and “FloriDada” is a testament to this.

It’s hard to pinpoint any one highlight of a track as infectiously catchy and utterly unique as this one.  Animal Collective have once again proven themselves to be perhaps one of the most creative bands in music, and while the new album “Painting With” might not set the musical world alight in quite the same way “Merriweather Post Pavilion” did, it’d be unfair to expect that level of genius from them every time they enter the studio.  I recommend that you download this song as soon as possible, as it needs to be heard.

Charlie McCartney