Animal Collective's Newest EP 'Bridge to Quiet' is a Compact and Intriguing Piece

I want to preface this by saying that I am the least qualified person to speak about this EP that has ever spoken about it. I haven’t listened to Merriweather Post Pavilion. In fact I have only ever listened to Tangerine Reef by Animal Collective, an album which I’ve heard is easily their worst (which I am not surprised by). Aside from that I really enjoyed the latest solo effort from Panda Bear for what it was, but other than that I’ve never gotten into Animal Collective whatsoever. I kind of just listened to this because I listen to a lot of things and I recognized the name, honestly. However, I’m pretty pleasantly surprised by what I heard here. Surprised probably isn’t the word given these guys are one of the most critically acclaimed groups of all time, but what I’m trying to say is that I enjoyed the release regardless of my lack of knowledge. I would actually love to hear more EP’s like this from these guys, as I feel like their sprawling brand of Neo-Psychedelia actually works really well in a bite-sized form like this. Again, I wouldn’t know just how great it can be in a full length format because for whatever reason I haven’t actually heard that. However, I can definitely appreciate this release on it’s own merits.

Right out the gate, Rain in Cups is one of the most mesmerizing Neo-Psychedelia tracks I’ve ever heard. Now we both know I haven’t heard many of those, but that’s still worth noting. The track does such an awesome job at keeping the listener entirely invested in it’s sprawling, sweeping soundscape of ambient noise. It’s like an audible blanket in the same way a gentle rainstorm is, which I’d imagine is exactly what they were going for. I know I’m probably just describing the basic sound these guys are known for, but I’d imagine any Animal Collective fan clicked off after the second sentence anyways so whatever. The rest of the record follows suit, thought I would say it never reaches the heights of the opening track again. Piggy Knows is one that’s quite a bit more eccentric, bringing a similar sound to the table but in a much more strange and quirky manner. The lyrics are really weird and hard to follow, though that's not a bad thing, and the sound of the track honestly left me pretty bewildered. That’s probably part of the point though, so I don’t mean that as a criticism. It’s a decent song that does a good job of keeping you invested in it despite it’s long runtime, but it’s definitely not one that I’d ever come back to.

Sux - Bier Passage is probably the weakest point on the EP for me, as it’s droning vocal samples and lack of much really happening make it the only song on here that overstays its welcome. Once again take my opinion with a grain of salt because I know literally nothing about this stuff, but this one did feel a little bit grating by the second half. I think if they shortened it into a five minute track and used it as more of an interlude it would have fit into the record much, much better. Clocking in at 7 and a half minutes though, it’s a cut that can be a bit of a chore to sit through. Things pick right back up with the closer and title track, which winds up being the most exciting and upbeat cut on the release. I’d still take the opener over it, but this is a close second as the jittery and bubbly synths make a for a perfect backdrop to the buttery, yet percussive little beat. It’s a constantly evolving track that swirls around in my headphones perfectly. Honestly the opener and closer alone make this 30+ minutes of music worth sitting through, and these two tracks are so awesome that the middle two honestly just feel like something you wait through to get to the rest. That’s not to say they’re bad songs, but in comparison to the better half of the project they’re noticeably less interesting.

I think the more compact size of this release does it a lot of favors because it makes the story it’s telling feel so much more digestible and straightforward. Tangerine Reef was such a frustratingly awful album because not only did it present itself in an extremely long winded way, it also lacked any sort of coherency and unity. This EP fixes all those issues by making sure they don’t make listeners listen to more than they should and by keeping everything tied together in an intelligent package. This record makes so much more sense than their last, but that’s coming from the guy that literally knows nothing about this group so I highly doubt anybody is still reading this anyways. I’m probably the least educated person who has ever written a review on Animal Collective given that I’ve only heard their post 2018 output, but for what it’s worth I enjoyed this little thing. The opener and closer are two extremely memorable tracks that kept my attention for their entire runtimes, and I think it serves the sound extremely well to keep things a little bit more compact. I should probably just go listen to Merriweather Post Pavilion though, honestly. - 7.4/10 (Best Songs - Rain in Cups, Bridge to Quiet)