- 01
- Jun
In a year of young prayers and reversed Icelandic gurgles, our ears might've sharpened: On initial listens Strawberry Jam's lyrics are easier to parse than past Animal Collective chirps, chants, and librettos. The syllables on the quartet's eighth album (seven studio, one live) are even less stuttered than those on the lovely pop-cycle, Feels. (Of course, befitting a psychedelic swirl, storylines remain suitably jumbled.) Overlapping nicely with its title, much of the narrative's food focused: broccoli, peaches, warm cereal, mildewed rice (yum!), and eating with good friends/girlfriends. Not entirely gormandized, child-scaring fireworks/mountains, magic, Al Green, a dinosaur wing, and the past also spin through the gurgling vocal rounds…