ANIMALS

I was so excited when I discovered this album and so sad to discover that it's the only one the band produced with that particular lineup. Their sound is unique and their time signature fluency is remarkable, which I find highly appealing. The only thing that keeps it below 5/5 in my opinion is its harmonic simplicity; ultimately, as far as I can tell (not having ventured to complete a full analysis of the album), most of what you will find here is pentatonic. There aren't a ton of key changes; most of the intellectuality of the music is embedded instead in the angular melodies and odd time signatures (which, I should add, don't generally change the apparent velocity of the music; the tempo in each song stays about the same, even though the emphasized beats will fall in unexpected places).

There's not much distortion here, which I also like. Frequently I feel that distortion is hard on the ears without adding anything to the music itself. The vocals are quite clean also; the overall feel is more placid and frequently uplifting than aggressive, though sometimes undergirded with a sense of driving intensity.

I wasn't particularly concerned with the lyrics here, although some people might find them overly sentimental. For me, it was enough to be interesting and appeal on an emotional level without distracting from the cerebrality of the music itself.