Animal Collective - My Girls (Domino) / Neko Case - People Got a Lotta Nerve (Anti/Epitaph)
4/5
BUY DOWNLOAD (MY GIRLS) / DOWNLOAD (PEOPLE GOT A LOTTA NERVE)
Mmm, summer. It's been a long time coming. The coldest winter for 18 years has been astoundingly beautiful at times, and we were all grateful for the snow holding up the country for a day or two, but it's time for us to break out the short sleeves and short shorts and burn our irises in a staring match that we're never going to win, but is still fun in a slightly Alec Empire manner.
And these two tracks are summer jams, no doubt. In the Case of Neko, it's the kind of thrusting, wistful indie-pop that is the sort of thing they'd play on The OC while one of the crew gazed out of the window of a car at the sunset dipping below the horizon; In the case of AC, it's them trying to wrestle back the dreamlectro crown from High Places. And, you know what? Both of them do a pretty good job of it too. Both of the tracks are slightly derivative ('My Girls', in particular, is basically just 'Peacebone' without a beat or proper chorus, and more reverb), but what these guys were looking for was atmosphere, and they've got it down to a T.
On the chorus of 'People...', the first cut from Miss Case's apparently-quite-good new album Middle Cyclone, she deadpan-coos "Yes I'm a maneater/But still you're surprised when I eat yer". Nonsensical? Yes. An unfounded jibe at Nelly Furtado? Perhaps. But it doesn't matter, because it's damn catchy. In the song's second half, she employs the jinking guitars and luscious all-girl harmonies that have worked wonders for Asobi Seksu of late. It's 154 seconds long. It's rather pretty. Give it a go.
'My Girls' is harder to like, but ultimately more rewarding. It's length - a whole 3 minutes longer than Neko's effort - daunts you, and on first listen you find yourself baffled by the lack of - well, quite a lot, really. The whole song basically flits around this one arpeggio for the entirety, the harmonies from the Collective quavering with harsh American twang. But you listen again, and you find yourself liquid, swimming in an aural sea of bubbling loveliness. Things reveal themselves to you that just weren't there the first time around - the bittersweet call and response of "a father's grace", the cheeky college-rock refrain of "I just want four walls and adobe slabs for my girls", the gradual ebb and flow of the rhythm section.
Sweet sentiment, sweet melodies, the sweet smell of sweat. Summer's here.
Artists in this article: Animal Collective
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