Animal Collective + Stealing Sheep | Tracks

“Today’s Supernatural”
Animal Collective

Avey Tare’s words hit like a jackhammer on “Today’s Supernatural,” the first single off Animal Collective’s eagerly awaited Centipede Hz. Urging us to “let go,” or more accurately, to “let let let let let let let let let let let go!,” Tare mimics a scratched CD, twisting his already overdriven pipes amid punctuating tabla rolls as oscillating, arpeggiated organ chords waltz up and down trailed by throbbing bass tones. Syncopated sparks fly while guidelines for this propulsive banger are barked out. “It’s not a question for your head,” he explains, practically ordering us to surrender our will. And why not? It’s an utterly hypnotic, multihued dispatch from an act that’s mastered the art of keeping its fans on their toes. A full four-piece once again, AnCo’s more cacophonous than ever. Part of that may be due to Deakin, back in the fold for the first proper album since 2007’s Strawberry Jam. This is the most agro we’ve heard the band since then. Why? Because, AT offers, “Sometimes you’ve gotta go get maaad.”