Doggy

Animal Collective

Animal Collective - Campfire Songs

Campfire Songs may be one of the most comforting albums I’ve heard in my life. It’s one of the first Animal Collective releases, and drastically different than the rest of their output at the time. Recorded directly after Danse Manatee, one of their most noisy, if not the most noisy album in their discography, it seems like the anti-thesis of everything that makes Danse Manatee what it is. Campfire Songs was recorded by three members of the band, Avey Tare, Panda Bear, and Deakin, in a porch in a rural part of Marlyand in the early November morning. The sounds of the wilderness awaking, and starting their day creep into the tracks so beautifully. The first track Queen In My Pictures acts as a way of sucking you into the forests of Maryland, with the faint rain (or is it tape hiss?) in the background and its repeated acoustically strummed guitars. The faint, barely there, vocal harmonies are ethereal, and make the album feel full, yet still taking empty space as a musical technique. By the end of Queen In My Pictures their quiet playing picks up speed and leads into the somber Doggy, their guitars pulsating and creating the beat. The lyrics are about Avey’s dog and its death. The simple, yet saddening make the song reach even further than it already would be without it. “Dog of depth in the dirt / They buried you deep, doggy / You’re the best doggy / My friend has a doggy / She’s real nice, wish you could chase her ‘round the yard.” Not only is that stanza full of emotion, the repeated chorus of “And you lay there / So still dog,” is just perfect. As the song ends, you hear the sounds of a plane flying overhead, and the noises of the rain starting to pick up.The third track, Two Corvettes is also just as beautiful, ethereal, and dreamy as the past two yet it evolves into a nightmare. The lyrics talk of two different men saying to their girlfriends “Let’s take a ride in my Corvette / Everything is fine in my Corvette,” and at around the 3:20 mark, Avey, Panda, and Deakins erratic guitar strumming come in, jolting you out of their calming dream of the past 2 and a half songs. Tare sings, about the two couples untimely death in a car crash, “Two Corvettes / Collide / On the freeway.” And the psychotic strumming leaves as fast as it came. Leaving you with only the sounds of the weather outside and the group whispering, “Moo Rah Rah Rain” as the fourth song of the same name begins. Almost as if on cue, a thunderstorm begins to begin in the background. The rain picks up, and the sky rumbles. It’s songs like this that makes me admire the nature of the East Coast out my window. And all nature in general too. The Earth basically perfected art before we even tried. And just as the closer De Soto De Sun starts the thunder seems to vanish, and the rain dies down, and the birds come out from their sleep and sing their songs along with the Collective. The major arpeggios signal that the darkness of Two Corvettes and Moo Rah Rah Rain are over, and nature is returning to its normal state of happiness. I can’t make out what their saying or what the songs about, so I don’t have anything to talk about on that front, but I cannot stop talking about how beautiful the entire thing is. It’s a package dreamy, psychedelic acoustic, well campfire songs. That’s what this album is meant to portray; a group of people crowding around a warm fire, and singing together. It’s simple pleasure of life, and they captured the essence and put it into this record.

I didn’t even know I could write this much about an album wow.