I have such a severe emotional connection to this band too. You did such a great job in putting my feelings about them into words.

Centipede Hz one of the most underrated albums of the last decade

When I went 5150 my senior year of high school, panda bears' person pitch really help me understand so much of my confusion and sorrow and gave me some optimism. Bros, comfy for nautica, and take pills speak to me so much I sometimes still get goosebumps singing the lyrics.

I've joked before about how I don't like AnCo because I do drugs, but because I have rampant ADHD, but like, seriously. Albums like Merriweather Post Pavilion or Person Pitch always make me feel understood on days I feel so disconnected from the world around me

By the way, the "vocal doubling ping pong" effect they do on Painting With is called Hocketing.

I love this so much. For years, I've been saying that, when it comes to Animal Collective, there are 4 types of people: 1) Those who have never heard of them, 2) Those who can't stand them, 3) Those who think "My Girls" is a pretty good song, " 4) And those whose lives were changed through engaging with the band. Naturally, I'm a "4". To this day, one of the achievements I'm most proud of was booking the boys (Avey, Geo, and Jeremy) to come and play an underground DJ set for like 150 people, during the Painting With Tour. Can't even believe they said yes. Said "hi" to Panda briefly backstage, but he was definitely not trying to come party after playing, which is totally fair.

"Head in the clouds, feet on the ground" This is exactly what gets me about these guys. I went through a prog rock phase a few years back because I just have a love for that richley-textured, imaginative, whole-world-in-a-song stuff you get from prog, but I realised that it was also an escape into a fantasy world because I was dissatisfied with myself and where I was. Like it's great stuff I'll enjoy going back to now and then, but it's real hard to relate yes's story of an ancient sculptor sculpting his dead wife in stone to remember her by to anything I was going to, as gorgeous as it may be to listen to. Animal Collective gives the same feel where you go into a different universe every time you listen to an album or ep or even a single song, except the key difference is it feels like an escape to a more magical take on real life, as opposed to an escape to somewhere I can never be. I was going through some really rough shit during the summer of 2020 when I really got into these guys, but I was also really moving forward in my life and taking bold steps to figure out who I really was, and neither the magic of yes or the calming power of boring indie rock that I've been obsessed with for years was something that really gave me the energy to discover who I was while making it through a really grueling summer with a shit job. Animal collective opened my imagination and helped me learn and get excited about who I was becoming and going to be for the rest of my life by making songs about how wondrous the world and people and love and were, and even how feelings like depression could be a birthplace for fascination and new perspectives (god I love street flash how the hell did they make that song go so hard) I think I often tend to boil things I love down to how fun and unique they are and unintentionally forget some of the reasons I loved them in the first place. This video was a good refresher for me :)

my ac was out all last summer and that's when i became obsessed with strawberry jam so the album feels sticky and hot and sweet just like the world around me. i can't listen to fireworks anymore without bursting into tears.

no other artists music makes me as happy or even near as happy as animal collectives does. especially because on my trip to hawaii i was listening to them so much, a bunch of their music has such a strong connection to nature for me.

I was having a hard time on mushrooms years ago and I felt as though I had to call this band because they would understand where I was at and what I was going through. I called a friend of mine instead and told him that he was the next best thing to Animal Collective which made him feel very honored.

"can't stop my mind from thinking... I let some hash relax me." Fall Be Kind always looked like a man displaying an ax to me.

The Centipede Hz love is much appreciated

Panda’s Person Pitch is the best thing ever to trip to though.

I just started to listen to animal collective and psychedelic songs and damn it helps me forget my problems

Their breakout record was actually "Feels" , I recall the same year that record came out, I was watching a Nick Jr TV bumper where they used "who could win a rabbit" as the music.

My top five: 5. Graze 4. Safer 3. Guy's Eyes 2. Did You See the Words? 1. For Reverend Green

Also (rewatching this months later and having another thought to share), really appreciate you starting the video with talking about "college". This song is always a part of my spiel when introducing someone to AC because i just love it so much. I started a masters program last year and listened to it the day I got my acceptance letter to remind myself that i don't have to go to college (AGAIN) but here I go anyway.

im currently a senior in high school who is super obsessed with anco. i love their music so much and have since 7th grade. thank u for making this :)

Cool vid, great band. "I Remember Learning How To Dive" is a song that feels to me like one of those weird subtle lessons you talk about in the vid. Using the scariness of diving for the first time as an analogy for how it feels to put yourself out there and try doing anything in general - "you just have to jump"!

I've been a fan since "purple bottle". It's cool that you feel confident enough to share music that you like. In the past friends and class mates have made fun of me for having unconventional (and sometimes not eurocentric) tastes in music.

What a fantastic dive into an experience/feelings and journey of a big fan of this band... I love when you had a problem recalling the full name of Spirit, one of my favorite albums that I still have to Google before confidently saying the full name, haha. I have a very similar, but totally different experience-journey with Animal Collective. They were the first band I found on my own rather than through friends/radio/etc. I read a pitchfork review about the recently released album Strawberry Jam, which is to this day my favorite album of all time. Or the one I feel the biggest connection to. Then Merriweather Post Pavillion was the first album I ever really was anticipating and got really into the live bootlegs of... but one of my top journeys of all time is going backwards into Animal Collective's catalog. Like you said, they got more and more experimental and I was in LOVE. Subbed and will check out your other stuff!

really great video! probably the best summation of them i've seen, really thoughtful and insightful. I'm off to check out your other stuff...

really great vid, i like how much love you showed for post-2009 anco

Oh man. I totally forgot that “Street Flash” existed, but you’re right… it is incredible. And takes me right back to being a teenager. Fucking hell, what a feeling.

i was 17 when i became engrossed with anco's music, i still remember listening to the line "bulimic vegetarian wins weight contest" while struggling with an eating disorder and it feeling so strongly like my life. their music is so special, listening to the band talk about the creative process of making their music always inspired me! the live set of avey tare's slasher flicks always makes me smile too

the first songs i listened to of ANCO's were Peacebone and Who Could Win A Rabbit, both still some of my top songs of theirs, quickly fell into them since them :) seeing more people appreciate them on such an emotional level like me is reassuring. Strawberry Jam and Sung Tongs are my absolute favorite albums of all time

the fall be kind cover has always looked like a gnome with a horn, which for whatever reason made me think morning and fall which are both things i heavily associate fall be kind with

this is an actually amazing video, I wouldn't have expected it to have so few views :0, thank you so much for making this :3

Great video dude. Thanks for making it

i grew up on classic rock and listened to a bunch of deep cuts from my dad’s CD collection. i was especially interested in his beach boys collection. the way brian wilson shaped and moved his songs made me look at music completely differently. it wasn’t just pop or rock or orchestral or any genre, it was art. i never felt that same wonder in music until my friend showed me Fireworks in high school. I immediately went home and listened to all of Strawberry Jam. I would sit in my room for hours a day listening to it, each time finding new sonic layers and noises. Then I listened to MPP. My mind was blown wide open. How could anybody structure songs like this? How could anybody imagine and then create these noises? Then I listened to Feels. First time i’ve ever cried to an album on a first listen. Then Sung Tongs. Then Spirit They’re Gone. Animal Collective has changed my life. I have never felt so in sync with music that I could never perform.

Its obvious you are a big fan, thanks for the video!

The way you describe music at 3:35 reminds me of the Big Thief song 'Time Escaping'

I love animal collective. And The Beach Boys. Perfection. Awesome video!

Oh my God thank you, I forgot about street flash. I approve this top 5 but of course I have a completely different top 5 of my own. This was great 🖤

Personally, Summertime Clothes has always been a song about spending summer nights with your best friend. It’s beautiful how people can take their work in slightly different ways.

Great video! Also, great objective call on "Street Flash" being the best Animal Collective song. I'd go so far as to say it is objectively the best song ever written. I think "Gotham" from the Honeycomb/Gotham single deserves an honorable mention as well. It's a nearly perfect song that I wish had made it onto Centipede Hz.

The part where you're talking about not knowing, or needing to know the lyrics really hit me. Animal collective is the one band who's lyrics I didn't feel compelled to read and know.. I have my own understanding of what the song is about based on my life experience, time with the song, and the fragments of lyrics that are easily understandable. I've been working on remaking a few tracks from person pitch lately and had to finally look up the lyrics to the songs and couldn't believe how different they were to what I imagined the songs to be about for so many years

I used to play college every day for my best friend the year leading up to him going to college. He became a douche when he started attending and we no longer speak. He works as a cook trying to pay off student debt. I image we'd both be much happier if he'd listened to me

20:14 The technique you're describing is called "hocketing"

Thank you for this

Excellent video.

Holy fuck... Someone loves Animal Collective as much as me.

Hehehehe..."bassist" Phil Lesh... from the Grateful Dead my other favorite band. Thank you for the video. I'm green to AC... but have a deep love for them. I wrote on another video that on the one hand I kinda wish I had delved deeper sooner but on the other hand I have this whole huge world of wonder to explore that's all new to me and that makes me very happy indeed. I like bands that are magic disguised as music. Animal Collective is soul food. It's like coming home

I was really hoping youd mention fall be kind, yesssss

In my perception, Summertime Clothes comes across as more of a friendship anthem. Maybe a read of the full lyrics would change that, but I’m in no rush to confirm or deny that :) Edit: commented before I hit 20:47 and that really summarizes how I feel about it

I was judging you a bit for a few of your top 5, but as soon as you put street flash at #1 my respect was fully restored lmao I love that I'm into this band enough to have such strong opinions on the rankings people give to specific songs Street flash probably wouldn't make my top 5, but it's an incredible song and it's close nothing feels like listening to that song does

Astute analysis, linking the level of romantic elements in their music to their popularity was especially interesting to me. Surprised there was no mention of Prospect Hummer but respect for the Water Curses and ODDSAC love. I first heard Prospect Hummer live when they came to LA for the 2018 Sung Tongs tour, which I’m eternally grateful for because it introduced me to my favorite Animal Collective EP and the majesty that is Vashti Bunyan. Also, I can relate to the bit about painting to AC, in high school I used to draw and water color paint with a lady who I associate with the one For Reverend Green line. Man of Oil is such a catchy song, I used to talk incessantly at this other friend about AC and it was the only song by them she really liked besides The Purple Bottle. Looking at my music listening statistics, they’re my most listened to band at 10 days, trailed by Steely Dan and Pavement. Animal Collective is such an important band for me, although I don’t listen to them much these days because I feel that the escapism, strangeness, and yearning for childhood joy I resonated so deeply with in much of their music negatively impacted my outlook and general effectiveness in life. For me, this moving on reflects the growth out of my intensely fraught and sublime adolescent stage, which are terms that also could be used to describe their music and this topic is one oft explored by them in albums like Spirit. Incredible music, I’ll incorporate it back into my life someday because I do greatly enjoy listening to them despite the bittersweet feeling I get. RIP All Gas No Breaks and God bless

wah you should do more music related contents. i dont even like anco all that much and this video was still the most ive been invested in music-related youtube videos now which is rare

yooouuuuhooouuuu hello thanks for a relaxing and thoughtful video. I got into animal collective as I was about to turn 16 the summer before I started gymnasiet (swedish hs). Didn''t listen to them for years as i learnt "cool ppl" on the "net"/I was hanging out w thought them to be cringe. kind of rediscovered them again after some introspection which had me start living more authentically. yay WHY ANIMAL COLLECTIVE HELPS according to me issss because there is something so primal about their music. just like some electronic music/rave culture reminds me of like drum rituals around the firee 20000403430 years ago but the difference between for instance techno and ac would be that animal collective feels so much more human if u get what i mean. i've never thought of their music as escapism but rather like returning to something very ancient but at the same time very present within meself. something like animal nature converging with divine realms. perhaps escapism could be part of that too but then all kinds of music would be escapism to me... feels a lil depressing thinkning about it in that sense bc i listen to music almost all the time. hennyway i appreciate your perspective. thanks again u seem like a nice dude to hang out with.

man of oil is lesser known???? 😭 that's actually the one that got me sliding into ac and really listening. i knew about em and liked them to a smaller extent before, but man of oil really got me in

Banshee beat doesn’t get much recognition. I run a lot and listening to the song, absolutely exhausted, sprinting down the last hill home… I cry. I bawl. Every time.

I was only vaguely aware of them and find their music mildly annoying, but it was an interesting video for sure!

Where's that bridge that's gonna take me home?

So crazy to me how little you talked about Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They've Vanished...didn't even mention Campfire Songs! I guess they have a lot of music haha. My top 5, since you asked: Unsolved Mysteries La Rapet Queen in My Pictures Loch Raven Alvin Row

Street Flash is such a gem. 2 years later, what do you think about Isn't It Now? and Time Skiffs? I was able to see them live for the first time, after seeing Avey a couple years back for Cows On Hourglass Pond and man it was such a good show.

5:59 So I have been slowly getting into Animal Collective this year and just a few weeks ago when I was listening to Feels for the first time in a beach chair, eyes closed, almost sleeping, I got a sunburn in my chest and my necklace left a huge mark on top of it. Doesn't really mean anything but still kind of a cool coincidence right? I can still see it though I don't think it will last more than a few dsys at this poont

wait the better call saul guy likes animal collective too?

I’m still waiting for the day they flip the script and go full doom metal.

I think the lack of love songs is fine, and honestly I welcome it. I'd rather love nature and the universe which seems like they focus on more

From Campfire Songs

Ok great video but how can you pick tomboy as the solo panda album to mention and not Person Pitch??????

What about Doggy

💚💙💚💙💚💙💚💙💚💙💚💙

only salty that you cut off good lovin at that point

I kinda fell off the AC wagon when they put out MPP, but that was only due to a less folky more poppy direction with their production. They still stand as one of the best bands I've ever been heavily into. Like a drug in music form, that made me forget about myself in the moment. A really sympathetic group of genius artists, truly inspired and capable of making universally great music. I must have seen them 6 or 7 times in their heyday, and I feel bad for anyone who missed out on this band. If you are on the ledge, unsure if AC is something for you, jump into that pool of love right now

Really enjoyed the video besides the middle section going over changing names and album covers etc. Instead of sounding genuine and personal you sounded like a mouthpiece for propaganda, there was a pretty distinct shift in wording. Otherwise a great video

Discovered your channel earlier this year and ended up loving it. I love it even more now tbh Also Sung Tongs is 🤌

What about Doggy