SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: ANIMAL COLLECTIVE – SPIRIT THEY’RE GONE, SPIRIT THEY’VE VANISHED (REMASTERED 2023)

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE
SPIRIT THEY’RE GONE, SPIRIT THEY’VE VANISHED (REMASTERED 2023)
DOMINO RECORDS

Animal Collective is a party for the ears, animating my life for the past two decades. Listening to Spirit They’re Gone, Spirit They’ve Vanished, I am reminded of why this band is so important to me. They seem to be armed with some sort of joyous chaos that keeps on lingering in their magical soundscapes of strings, drones, and screams, and all this flows gently into melodies.

Their energy feels borrowed from youth yet is mature and sometimes even calm and calming. Listening to the flawless remaster of Spirit They’re Gone, Spirit They’ve Vanished has been like opening a window that brings unusually fresh air from the past.

Spirit They’re Gone, Spirit They’ve Vanished was initially released in August 2000, and after giving the recent remaster a few deep listens, I am more than ever convinced about the fact that Animal Collective is timeless. This album still sounds like it belongs in the future, and the remaster provides additional clarity and greater fidelity to its many sound layers. It also includes the sublime and never before released EP entitled A Night at Mr Raindrop’s Holistic Supermarket, which also grabbed my heartstrings with its homemade feel.

Whether you’re a long-time fan or have never heard them before, I invite you to dive deep into Animal Collective’s remastered debut. Every song stands on its own: the triumphant sounds of “Chocolate Girl”, the drumming in “Bat You’ll Fly”, and the softness of songs like “Alvin Row”. Spirit They’re Gone, Spirit They’ve Vanished is a phenomenal introduction to Animal Collective. When you have a listen, I hope that you are open to noise, but also enchanted and mesmerized as I have been by their complex melodies, frantic chanting, inventive feedback loops, and that peculiar energy that Animal Collective offers to us with their sounds.

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