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TIME SKIFFS

Spike Sidor
Animal Collective Time Skiffs Review Album Cover

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE

2022 PSYCH-POP/NEO-PSYCH 

Time Skiffs is the eleventh album from indomitable neo-psych icons Animal Collective. What honeyed words, they are distant from us now. The last great Animal Collective album was Merriweather Post Pavilion which came out in 2009 and Feels even further back in 2005. In my youth I thought of them as the band that could do no wrong, their live shows stuff of folk legend, and the prospect of new music filled all with the bristle of anticipation. What sound would they bend next with their signature whimsical cacophony and epileptic ambience? These days I think of sparse mediocre releases, of when I saw them in concert and they played Bees, an ambient track, as a goddamn encore, and of lifeless solo projects that inspire ever dimming confidence in a group effort. I just see boring old men. Their decline no doubt is a complex thing, of changing people and conditions that took place over many years, but for the spectator it was a precipitous fall. When I put them on when hanging with friends they say, remember when they were good, or remember when we used to jam to Peacebone on drives? When I ask them if they listened to one of their new releases they say, I feel asleep halfway through, or I haven’t, is it actually good? A friend of mine opened a conversation by saying that on Time Skiffs the band sounds like they are clocking into a job they don’t give a shit about. He isn’t a music critic, writer, or some other underground obsessive. Only a regular fan. It’s unfair to disregard his opinion as another asshole who is clouded by nostalgia, cornering the band into a particular style, or due to tired sensibilities that can’t keep up with change.

His assessment might be too harsh but I can see where his grievances come from. Time Skiffs doesn’t evoke the bustling neo-psych of the past, the sonic palette that is the love of so many lives. This contributes to serious friction as they’ve gone with laid back psych-pop as the crux of their sound. It’s like a slow drive in your ultraluxe hover car through a prismatic countryside. The sights are beautiful at times, the mood serene but your mind drifts. After all it’s just a lackadaisical afternoon and these crystalline mountains are starting to blend together. In case it’s not clear, Time Skiffs isn’t a terrible record. I was never reeling back, languishing at the prospect of another minute of the current track or the ones to follow, but I was never excited either. Make no mistake there are highlights like Dragon Slayer which pleasantly bounces between twinkling synths and guitars while Avey conjures up some of his signature charisma. Or the jubilant Strung with Everything that feels like your skin being warmed from the sunshine bleeding into your beach cabana. And the leisurely daydreaming is best on Cherokee as the listener melts to gentle storytelling and buttery synths. Many tracks do get bogged down in the quest of space age relaxation; Strung runs to seven minutes and Cherokee eight, the real killer is the misery-inducing Prester John that feels like a lifetime.

As a full experience Time Skiff only offends in the greater context of Animal Collective’s explosive past. Once I finished listening I had no desire to return, I thought that was alright if a bit boring, now what should I put on next. Regardless the band has earned a lifetime of listening goodwill and if this is what they will continue to offer then that’s more then fine, if I was to rate it would be a 6. I wish it was a bit better but I wish that of all things. 

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