‘Feels’ by Animal Collective: A Review

Lurking in the indie experimental shadows of music, lies a band that has been around for decades, yet is able to timelessly keep their music refreshing, Animal Collective.

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The band consists of four members with respective stage names: Dave Portner (Avey Tare), Noah Lennox (Panda Bear), Brian Weitz (Geologist) and Josh Dibb (Deakin). 

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As childhood friends growing up in Maryland, the four would exchange tapes they created with each other, which inevitably resulted in sampling each other’s music. The four didn’t start playing under the name Animal Collective until they moved to New York for college. 

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With colorful, intentional vocals and funky samples layered over unique percussion and guitar loops recorded by themselves, Animal Collective has carved out a niche in the corner of the 2000s indie music scene. The band has received praise for various releases, their most critically acclaimed being Merriweather Post Pavilion, released in 2009. 

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However, the 20th anniversary of their album, Feels, is being re-released on Oct. 17, and what better way to celebrate than through an album review. Feels is known within the AnCo community as being the start of their “golden age” run of releases, ranging from 2005-2009–though I would personally disagree with this; Sung Tongs needs its flowers, too. 

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Feels is the sixth studio album from the band, which was released on Oct. 18, 2005. This album features all four members, which is not always the case for an AnCo record. The group’s lineup changes based on who’s available to contribute to an album. It features nine songs with a runtime falling just short of 52 minutes. 

This is an extremely patient record. AnCo songs are those that do not follow a typical song structure, which can make songs feel way longer, complex or hard to listen to at first. That being said, it is one of the best albums that has ever graced my ears. Almost all of the songs breeze by the five minute mark — a rare occurrence in today’s music. 

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The first song on the record, “Did You See The Words,” is a perfect example, as it starts incredibly slow. But, the slow build up has a rewarding payoff, preparing the listener for the rest of the album. 

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Moving into “Grass,” the tom-heavy drums thump into an opening melody that is incredibly whimsical, almost fae-like. It feels like a song that physically makes you move, even if you don’t want to. Portner always delivers on the vocals, and in this song specifically do we get to hear some range — screaming, singing, shouting — all forms of vocal expression going on here. 

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Nothing compares to “The Purple Bottle” on this album. It’s freeing, yet tells a story of a love-crazed individual. I’ve never heard a song that sounds so high-spirited, yet its lyricism dives into the feelings of passion for someone so intensely you’re going to explode if you don’t do something about it.  

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“Bees” is a slow, drone-like track that loops the same sound from a guitar, paired with Portner’s raw vocals. This is one of the songs that feels a lot longer than it actually is, as the song’s pacing breaks traditional structure. Portner experiments with a spoken-word approach on this song — different, yet unsurprising — which couldn’t have been any more perfect than it is on the track. 

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Songs like “Banshee Beat” are essentially how to describe Animal Collective to someone if they’ve never heard of them. It’s so cohesive, you can hear the years of relationships, laughter and tears that have been exchanged within the members of this band. 

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An unexpected gem of this record goes to “Loch Raven,” an a haunting, childlike melody that somewhat serves as a reminder of growing up and some harsh realities we can experience. The song’s lyricism focuses on unrequited love, acts of desperation and regrettable choices, yet their choice to echo the phrase “I will not give up on you” in the background repeatedly gives the song some gentle reassurance. 

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This is a unique record in terms of the recording process. On their online forum, Collected Animals, Weitz explains the recording process to a fan who asked. 

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“All the songs on Feels are tuned to our friend’s piano which was out of tune to begin with,” Weitz said. “Dave and I made loops from recordings of him playing her piano, and we used those loops in the early songwriting process for Feels.”

Since the piano was not intentionally out of tune, it was only different due the natural process that occurs from years of playing. On top of this, when recording the album, instruments had to be tuned around the piano, making it difficult to replicate for in-studio recordings. 

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This is not the first time Animal Collective is stepping outside of the norm for their recording process. Their other albums have similar stories. For the recording of their album, Sung Tongs, Portner and Lennox spent weeks in their recording space slamming doors, screaming in different rooms and experimenting with their instruments to create a unique sound for their record.

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“I remember using the door of the house which is what that distorted rhythm track in ‘Kids on Holiday’ is,” said Portner. “The person talking at the beginning of ‘Who Could Win a Rabbit’ is someone in a deli in my neighborhood.”

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The band continues to tour and release music, with their last album, Isn’t It Now? being released in 2023, and a live version of their album, Sung Tongs, being released in 2024. Panda Bear is currently on tour in the U.S., accompanied by Deakin, taking the role of opener for the tour.