indy cd & vinyl

CD: “FEELS”—ANIMAL COLLECTIVE

$15.99 (list price), Rock, Fatcat

Basic Story: Lastest bent-pop opus from this charming (recently-expanded) four piece.

Sample: “Sometimes you’re quiet and sometimes I’m quiet/Hallelujah/ Sometimes I’m talkative and sometimes you’re not talkative/I know/Sometimes you hear me when others, they can’t hear me/Hallelujah/Sometimes I’m naked and, thank god, sometimes you’re naked/Praise the lord.”

Review: Listening to Animal Collective is like listening to the pure pop of the Beatles in the audio-equivalent of a room full of fun-house mirrors. You recognize familiar sounds and approaches, but they are bent and curved into new, somewhat odd and distorted sound collages. For most bands, this results in an aural hodgepodge that merely masks weak tunes, but on “Feels,” Animal Collective demonstrates that they have a superior grasp of both traditional pop as well as more “avant-garde” approaches to modern rock music. Occasionally overly whimsical, this is a solid effort by an ambitious group. .