In a year of older prayers and reversed Icelandic gurgles, our ears might've sharpened: On initial listens Strawberry Jam's lyrics are easier to parse than past Animal Collective chirps, chants, and librettos. The syllables on the quartet's eighth album (seven studio, one live) are even less stuttered than those on the lovely pop-cycle, Feels. (Of course, befitting a psychedelic swirl, storylines remain suitably jumbled.) Overlapping nicely with its title, much of the narrative's food focused: broccoli, peaches, warm cereal, mildewed rice (yum!), and eating with good friends/girlfriends. Not entirely gormandized, child-scaring fireworks/mountains, magic, Al Green, a dinosaur wing, and the past also spin through the gurgling vocal rounds?
Recorded in Tucson with Scott Colburn, who's spun knobs for Sun City Girls (Arizona's finest) and Neon Bible (not Arcade Fire's finest), the nine songs possess desert heat with fewer stretches of weirdo ambiance; even blustery/blown-out "Winter Wonder Land"'s a melted box of Crayola's. Who cares if the tremulous, asteroid-shooting slow jam "#1" and the extended tunneling of "Cuckoo Cuckoo" are icy? Arizona does get chilly in the winter, sometimes at night. The real stars, though, are bright, sunny, infectious, tricolor trip-pop tunes, some of the group's strongest, most vibrant to date: "Peacebone" bumps along with a steel drum jangling besides a bubbly rhythm and layers of whiplash vocal effects; "Chores" laps constantly, its pinball calypso build finding a psychedelic (beach) boy-band upswing at the 3/4 mark; and the sweaty sermon, "For Reverend Green," skitters with a Modest Mousy spastic yowl (as does the excellent "Fireworks"). The band's always offered catch in their golden throats, but these tracks possess more focused dynamics: defined lead/backing vocalists, tighter structures, and bigger choruses.While the cover art's sorta gross, it does make sense: Strawberry Jam is a sweet, almost day-glo mash that leaks more interesting colors the longer you focus on it. If you prefer stranger, older, or even Sung Tongs AC, some of the shine might not be your cup of mushroom tea (no "Visiting Friends" or dancing manatees in sight), but give the record a few listens -- what's lost in length is more than made up for in its syrupy depths.
Note: Everyone's talking Baltimore these days, but remember where Panda Bear, Avey Tare, Geologist, and this other Deacon(er, Deakin) incubated before they spread (pun intended?) to Lisbon, New York, and Paris, etc.
Strawberry Jam is out this September on Domino.
UPDATE: By popular demand, the tracklist...
01 "Peacebone" (5:13)
02 "Unsolved Mysteries" (4:25)
03 "Chores" (4:30)
04 "For Reverend Green" (6:34)
05 "Fireworks" (6:50)
06 "#1" (4:32)
07 "Winter Wonder Land" (2:44)
08 "Cuckoo Cuckoo" (5:42)
09 "Derek" (3:01)
