After a decade of ceaseless experimentation and genre hopping, Animal Collective finally struck gold with 2009’s Merriweather Post Pavilion. One of that decade’s finest albums, its dense, complex rhythms were overlaid with psychedelic textures and – crucially – inspired pop nous. But having delivered a masterpiece, they seemed not to know how to follow it: 2012’s Centipede Hz and 2016’s Painting With were an awkward mix of innovation and irritating, self-conscious wackiness.
In one respect, Time Skiffs, their first album proper in six years (the less said about 2018’s woeful collaboration with Coral Morphologic the better), is a step forward in that there is nothing to set one’s teeth on edge, the vocals of Panda Bear and Avey Tare working together this time, as opposed to against each other, one of Painting With’s most distressing developments. Equally, however, there is precious little to fall back in love with. The rare kernels of genuine inspiration tend to be buried beneath so many awkwardly assembled layers and stop-start arrangements that they get lost; the disjointed Prester John began life as two songs and it shows; the plodding Royal and Desire is actively dispiriting.
Every so often, the disparate parts coalesce into something enjoyable: We Go Back and Dragon Slayer both exhibit a lovely playfulness. Stretched over 48 minutes, though, there’s the sense that for all its undoubted cleverness, Time Skiffs is not terribly easy to warm to.
