In the 'what the fug was that?' department, bizarre Brooklyn duo ANIMAL COLLECTIVE (individually Avery Tare and Panda Bear), have already carved a sizeable niche with their recent "Sung Tongs" album. Come the tail end of 2004, it surely has a sporting chance in the Weirdest Album Of The Year stakes, even if it doesn't make the regular polls.
Releasing a single from this sprawling, indefinable record seems either infantile or extremely brave on the face of it, seeing as Animal Collective probably stand about an infinity-to-one chance of ever getting daytime radio play, yet for all that, you reviewer is beginning to warm to them in a depraved, room-without-windows kinda way.
"Who Could Win A Rabbit" is truly potty. Its' guitars are almost African in design; its' handclaps rule; its' shakers are positively joyous and the vocals sound like an Appalachian folk convention with a guest appearance from 'Bugs Bunny's Elmer Fudd: himself hardly a rabbit lover, lest we forget. Incredibly, the end results are quite entrancing after a few listens and a semblance of a tune pokes through. Great, I think.
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Besides, when compared with B-side "Baby Day" it might as well be Peter Andre. "Baby Day" may or may not actually be a celebration of childbirth ("she's gonna have a baby" they chant fervently several minutes in), but whatever the deal, its' echoed, percussive drum pulses are quite possibly post-lobotomy blues in full effect and when it does eventually give way to vocals/ harmonies, they are decidedly off-the-wall. Calling it 'unclassifiable' would seem to sell it some way short.
The CD is housed in a fetching sleeve that apparently depicts a seriously crazed Yeti/ rabbit mutation. Somehow, it says more about the nature of Animal Collective's music than this reviewer could even after a watering can full of pills.
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