Animal Collective’s Time Skiffs: Cool Dad Music

By Lauren Larking

Animal Collective is local. Kind of.

Members Noah Lennox (Panda Bear) and Josh Gibb (Deakin) attended Boston University and Brandeis respectively. Other members David Portner (Avey Tare) and Brian Weitz (Geologist) did not. But the birth of Animal Collective dates back way before the college years, when they all met in various grade schools across Baltimore and started playing music together in their mid-teen years. 

Time Skiffs dropped on February 4th and fans (cool dads, sad college kids, single millennial pretentious men?) weren’t holding their breath for it. The band’s best and most well-known album Merriweather Post Pavilion released in 2009 has left fans disappointed with many of the releases since. Thankfully, Time Skiffs is so much better than expected.

The album, the band’s first in over six years, contains nine quintessential Animal Collective style songs that lead a psychedelic and eclectic experience. Genre jumping and soundscaping their way onto the alternative music radar, the band declined to be defined by just one thing. Mixing harmonies on top of compiled guitar, drums, piano, and any other noise occasionally thrown in for good measure, Animal Collective constructs worlds of their own. Pitchfork placed Time Skiffs in their “Best New Album” section, which both admirers and adversaries of the music review site found notable. Pop in your headphones, dim the lights, and shut your lids before immersing yourself in a world as layered and experimental as scissors and box hair dye in the communal dorm bathroom. 

Coming in at 3:56, “Dragon Slayer” is one of the shorter songs on the album. The echoey electric guitar and slightly distorted vocals mash to make a solid first record. It’s a bit repetitive, but inventive enough to keep monotony at bay. It bleeds into “Car Keys,” which was originally performed as a two-in-one with “Dragon Slayer” at festival appearances. “Car Keys” keeps you on your toes with melodic harmonies in the chorus and what I could only pin down as a xylophone leading the verses. 

“Prester John” is a six minute stand out. And surprisingly, only the third longest running song on the album. Racking up the most Spotify streams thus far, it seems to be a fan favorite. Take the Twilight soundtrack and dropkick it two hundred years into the future. Sporadic and imaginative piano paired with a witty drum beat makes for some audible gold on this track. According to History Today, Prester John is a famous medieval Christian figure who may or may not have existed. I think that’s the point. I think.

Animal Collective morphs almost fully into the Beach Boys in “Strung with Everything.” Except this beach is in a parallel universe where the waves crash upside down and the sun is slightly green. It’s melodious yet blunt, restrained, yet in your face. A bit too long for its own good though. “Walker” is a funky twist on a pop song and appears to be another fan favorite. It’s upbeat and quicker in a way many of the other records on the album are not. “Passer-by” is slow but genuine, but not as notable. It’s similar in vibes yet topped by the following track.

All roads lead to “Royal and Desire” which hits a home run. It’s just over 5 and ½ minutes, but it really should go on forever. It has some of the most beautiful harmonies and lyrics on Time Skiffs. It constructs an unhurried daydream that makes you appreciate the music you didn’t understand in the first eight songs and love the music you did even more. Ending the song and album with “And we’ll always come ‘round” is teardrop worthy. 

Time Skiffs is audibly sexy, swift, and smart. Animal Collective continues making contemplative and experimental music for contemplative and experimental people– And cool dads.