Animal Collective - Sung Tongs

Nice

I think this may be their best one so far. As anyone reading this by now probably already knows, the music here attracts admirers through it's originality, sunny tone and left-field weirdness. Leaf House, Rabbit, Winters Love, We Tigers and maybe Kids on Holiday are the immediate tracks that standout. Songs like "Softest Voice" and "Visiting Friends" take getting into but anyone with an appreciation for ambient music who has a few minutes to just turn off their brain and do nothing but listen to the music should probably like those tracks as well. "College" is a track that no one ever talks about but is the closest thing to Beach Boys harmonizing I've ever heard from any of all the so-called bands over the years who sound like Pet Sounds. At the end of the track there's a lyric that anyone can find amusing. The last three tracks do nothing for me, hence the deduction to 4 stars. July 15, 2007

Eclectic

Throughout my years of music listening I have come across really weird bands with strange sounds and interesting melodies. Animal Collective is by far the most out there.

About 90% of those who I have played them for hate them. They hate them because you can't truly understand the lyrics and what you do understand is completely nonsensical. Their music is strange and extremely displacing. One song you'll be transported a wonderful world of happiness in the clouds [Who Could Win A Rabbit] and the next you'll be thrown into what seems like either a really bad or really good acid trip [Leaf House].

For those that do like Animal Collective, that is why. The listener is taken on a journey where lyrics mean nothing. It is entirely up to your imagination to make your own conclusions about a musical world that mimics that of Looking-Glass Land.

Animal Collective is my personal favorite band for reasons of their amazing sense of structure in an eloquently disheveled universe.

Listen to them, try them out. If you like them, awesome; if you don't... move on. July 14, 2007

Tung Songs

If Mum or Sigur Ros got invaded by a bunch of acid-tripping folkies, then the result might be something like "Sung Tongs," another unspeakably mad album by the Animal Collective. This bizarre little band continues to push the limits of traditional songcraft and melodies, and leave you feeling mildly nostalgic. Maybe a little dizzy too.

It opens with a spinning, screechy noise -- which would seem to indicate hard-rock to follow. Wrong. Instead, a mellow folky melody and murmuring vocals, which suddenly build and multiply into a chorus of creepy voices. "Leaf House" undulates through a fragmented melody, full of distorted vocals and flowery acid folk.

If that hasn't knocked you off your chair, then the following songs might. "Who Could Win A Rabbit" sounds like your basic country-folk song on mushrooms, and following it is an arc of colourful songs: gossamer-thin guitar ballads, sketchy little experimental songs, hallucinatory folk, spare guitar pop, and.... well, just about everything else.

"Sung Tongs" isn't an easy album to get into -- it's all about the atmosphere, rather than something you can get up and dance to. Granted, a few of the tracks are quite catchy, but in the end it's all about the dark, colourful, disturbing and somehow soothing feeling that the music leaves you with.

It also has some remnants of "Here Comes the Indian," with "We Tigers" turning into a tribal beat-and-chant affair. But most of the time, the Collective tries out other stuff, like paring down the music to just guitar, vocals and spoons. Other times it's a massive, intoxicating swirl of rippling guitar and bass, bands of eerie synth, rattling noises, and the occasional sample. What IS that bubbling sludgey noise?

The Collective also sounds more comfortable here, with chipper vocals and lots of handclaps. You can't make out much of the lyrics, but they're more about being part of the lyrics than about being lyrics -- "Good day outside/Tribe of life and mine and yours/You're so good and natural/Arms appeal/Cause your so/close." Well, whatever.

"Sung Tongs" featured the Animal Collective expanding their already-strange sound even further, until nobody could hope to catch up to the strangeness. Definitely worth hearing. January 4, 2007

feels like i just ate a bag of mushrooms

the first track on this album leaf house completely blew me away. i sat in AWE and had to listen to it about 5 times in a row for it to even begin to sink in. at times, its alot to take in. highly psychadelic and extremely beautiful. July 29, 2006

Best of Avey Tare and Panda Bear (+ the rest of Animal Collective)

On their 'breakout' album "Sung Tongs," Animal Collective really shines as a unique group who can create infectious songs while still maintaining that originality that most involved listeners find attractive.
Before hearing this... All I'd heard of Animal Collective was the track "Slippi" off of 'Here Comes the Indian,' and although it was a good song, I didn't find them worth exploring further. That was probably 5 or 6 months before the release of Sung Tongs. Upon reading good reviews of Sung Tongs, I decided to give it a chance and bought the record on vinyl. What a lucky buy, because little did I know, the record was phenomenal and I usually only buy vinyls if the album really stands out.
The first two tracks really caught my attention and I don't think I've heard another album start off this well. What, with the beach boys-esque vocals and tribal-styled instrumentation, it was simply irresistable.
Next, things were slowed down. The dissonant strumming of "The Softest Voice" was a bit too sparse. Afterwards, 'Winters Love' slowly fades from a quiet to a slightly louder beach boys sounding track. 'Kids on Holiday' is reminiscent of the Microphones, but with that defeniate and delightfully freakish 'Animal Collective' twist.
One of my favorite tracks "Sweet Road" uses warped field recordings and fun vocal stylings... But I absolutely love the clap after they first say "Sweet Road." I've rarely heard such a simple percussive statement be used as a hook so well.
The only faultering (long) moment on the album was Visiting Friends, unless you're patient. It drags on a little too long in my opinion and doesn't go anywhere further than the endless dissonant strumming that's already been done earlier on the album and in early groups (see: the microphones) more effectively.
The other two tracks that really stand out on the album are "We Tigers" and "Mouth Wooed Her" the former being the kind of song I was nearly expecting to hear on an album such as this. The last track is the one thing keeping this album from being rated a full five stars (I'd like to give it four and a half) because it was a weak way to end the album and isnt the kind of beautiful opus that you'd expect. May 30, 2006

More reviews at Amazon.com ...