Adrift between folk, pop and drugs

I'll be the first to admit that, despite the hype, I couldn't warm up to Animal Collective's 2004 critical slam-dunk and breakout record Sung Tongs. As off-time and smirking as other 2004 darlings (i.e. the Fiery Furnaces) it was over-caffeinated, overly quirky and obnoxious. Still, just as it was a personal concession for me to admit that the 2004 Fiery Furnaces EP was pretty damn good, I have no choice but to admit the positives of Feels. It's a solid recording, albeit extremely off-kilter.\nI'm not saying that Avey Tare, Deakin, Panda Bear and Geologist aren't annoying at times, because believe me, they are. It's just that on Feels they've managed to strike a balance between spaced-out weirdness and legitimately pleasing rock vignettes. It often ventures into too-cute, precious goofiness and yet manages to redeem itself.\n"Did You See the Words" opens the album with a chord progression (and general mood) reminiscent of the Arcade Fire. "Grass" sounds like Brian Wilson's Smile would if it didn't suck. "The Purple Bottle" has all the sufficient preschool wackiness to please stupid twee-pop weirdoes while still being musically satisfying in a stripped-down, theatrical way. Yes, there are a lot of shrieking noises made in this song, but I suppose if you've put up with bands like the Shins without fuming, you can put up with this, too. "Bees" is a bit much -- the song consists mostly of an irregularly strummed harp played in what sounds like a haunted monastery with someone moaning about "the bees, the bees, the bees" in the background. Cool.\nThe album's second half becomes something like either an epic Can ramble-jam or some of the more recent trip-folk releases like Six Organs of Admittance. It can be either soothing or frustrating, depending on how actively stimulated you want to be. At nearly nine minutes long, "Banshee Beat" causes eye-rolling, and "Daffy Duck" and "Loch Raven" blend into a forgettable hum. Still, the album ends strongly with "Turn into Something," a song that echoes the opener as well as early Modest Mouse.\nOn a whole, this album isn't as accessible as Sung Tongs, nor do its songs have the brevity of that album that made them so much easier to take in and digest. It's slow, warbling, stumbling at times, but it's all in an earnestly experimental vein. That at least makes giving it a chance worthwhile.