The year 2009 turned me into an Animal Collective fan in more ways than one. Very early on in the year, I came upon Merriweather Post Pavilion (MPP) after reading about it on one of my favorite blogs, Hipster Runoff. I didn’t listen to it very much after downloading it, mainly because I didn’t “get it.” I didn’t understand Animal Collective at the time. But in May, I caught the second half of Animal Collective’s set at the Sasquatch Music Festival at the Columbia River as I waited for the Decemberists to start, and they mesmerized me. I still didn’t quite understand what it was, but I just knew that I liked it. 
After that, I listened to MPP a lot over the summer. And a lot this fall. And Strawberry Jam a lot. And Feels a lot. And Campfire Songs a lot. So when I heard earlier this fall that Noah “Panda Bear” Lennox, Davey “Avey Tare” Portner, and Brian “Geologist” Weitz were releasing a new EP to follow-up their January masterpiece, I jumped out of my sneakers.
Fall Be Kind met my highest expectations. Once I got it, I plugged my earbuds in and just listened to it, basking in the all-encompassing sound that Animal Collective banked on with MPP. But what was different with Fall Be Kind was how it dropped the sometimes-frantic energy that made MPP such a good dance album as well as a great album to groove to. Fall Be Kind felt exactly like the cozier, eerier b-sides that they left off of MPP. Fitting for the title, I felt like was literally listening to fall – dark, heavy, peaceful, and at times, dewy.
The EP opened up on the swirling energy of “Graze,” a 5:22-long epic that moves like a carnival ride – the excited anticipation to the long and anxiety-building straightaway to the smile-inducing loops and twists. Animal Collective even used some wicked pan flute to up the fairytale feel. “What Would I Want? Sky,” a track that samples the Grateful Dead’s “Unbroken Chain,” also stays with the bright vibe that “Graze” kicked the EP off with. It isn’t quite as frenetic as the first, but this Fall Be Kind EP moves swiftly from one song to the next. That’s also something that sets this EP apart from MPP – Portner and Lennox’s contrasting vocals and how they harmonize wonderfully. Even with the haunting third track, “Bleeding,” Lennox’s voice is the driving force over the simple and ghostly bass line. The undertones never change, and Lennox’s voice never really changes all that much either. “Bleeding” felt even more like a cut from Lennox’s solo album Person Pitch than an Animal Collective song.
If I had to pick a low-point to the album, but only if I absolutely had to, it would be “On A Highway.” It didn’t bring as many new sounds to Animal Collective’s repertoire and the repetition that “Bleeding” did so well didn’t quite work as effectively on “On A Highway.” But either way, it’s still awesome, just not quite as awesome as the other songs on the album. The last track on the album, “I Think I Can,” brought this EP full circle – finishing on the twirling xylophone and the overlapping singing by Lennox and Portner. Like a great conclusion to an essay, “I Think I Can” refers back to the introduction to the album. But without being a repeat of “Graze,” “I Think I Can” felt like the zig zag that fit in on top of the big block in Tetris – like it wasn’t originally meant to fit there, but it does anyway.
Since these were tracks compiled together as cuts from MPP, previously recorded BBC tracks and tour favorites, they obviously weren’t crafted together as a cohesive album to begin with, but they still are amazingly cohesive.
I know I’m gushing, but thankfully, I “get” Animal Collective now. If you don’t get them yet, I insist that you listen to them in backwards chronological order, starting with Fall Be Kind and Merriweather Post Pavilion. You’ll get it, and you’ll thank yourself for that.
Track Listing:
01. Graze
02. What Would I Want? Sky
03. Bleed”
04. On a Highway
05. I Think I Can
