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Album Discussion Thread - Strawberry Jam (self.AnimalCollective)

submitted by selib[M]

Strawberry Jam

Released: September 10, 2007

Length: 43:36

Label: Domino

Discription:

Strawberry Jam is the seventh studio album by American indie rock band Animal Collective. It was released in September 2007, the band's first on Domino Records. The title and track listing were revealed by band member Geologist on the Collected Animals message board on May 16, 2007.[12] The press response to Strawberry Jam was highly positive, with most lauding its unique sound as a large step forward in the band's evolution. The album charted on the Billboard Top 200, debuting and peaking at #72.

Prompts:

  • What do you like/dislike about the album?
  • What is/are your favorite track(s) on the album?
  • Do you think it still holds up after all this time?
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[–]sertyawert 23 points24 points  (2 children)

Probably my favorite AnCo album. Always moves around in the top 3 at least! Peacebone might have been the first AC song I heard.. And it really opened up music for me. At first I was really turned off by the weird chaos in the beginning, but after a few more listens it grew on me and I loved it. I listened to the rest of the album and loved it as well! So many strong tracks on it too: fireworks, for Reverend green, cuckoo cuckoo. But I love all of them, especially Derek (don't think it gets enough love) Overall I would consider it one of the bands best efforts, it sure had me hooked.

[–]cmcb21 15 points16 points  (1 child)

DEREK NEVER WOKE UP AT NIGHT

[–]flashbohemia 3 points4 points  (0 children)

WRAP YOUR PECKERS

[–]cmcb21 20 points21 points  (1 child)

I always say that this is AnCo's most consistent album. Look at that track list, every song is either amazing or really amazing.

[–][deleted] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I'd say that every one of their albums are like that, but it might be the fanboy in me speaking. Hisses They're all perfect!!!

[–]whiteveinthai 16 points17 points  (2 children)

You know that feeling when you're so exhilarated? Like you feel a rush of adrenaline and feel like you're on top of the world? Well, drugs or no drugs, "For Reverend Green" is one of the few songs that make me feel like that naturally. Therefore it is one of the best songs ever made. I love Strawberry Jam and I'd say it might overall be their best band effort. Sung Tongs possibly is my number 1 favorite but I don't know anymore actually! Strawberry Jam and Sung Tongs are usually tied. Depends on my mood, but right now I'd pick SJ.

It has a raw primal feel to it that Sung Tongs touched upon, but this time it is far louder and far more aggressive at times (or just far more dark I guess) than a song like "We Tigers". "Cuckoo Cuckoo" is deliciously deranged. "Peacebone" is controlled chaos. it's one of the most catchy pop melodies yet it has such a fucked up vibe to it. For example, it's given my friends a headache before. Yet it won't get out of your head. "#1"? Well absolutely deranged again, but then you have those beautiful background vocals. This album is a weird mix of contrasts that somehow works like a marriage.

"Derek" is the exception. It's so fucking cute and gorgeous that it is its own special entity. At first I thought it was so out of place, but that melody.. that is something only Panda can pull off so well using such a simplistic cute melody like that.

Only thing I'm not crazy about (well I sort of am, but not as much as most AnCo fans) is "Fireworks". I know this is a fan favorite but I find "For Reverend Green" and "#1" to be far more deserving of acclaim. "Fireworks" is nothing special to me compared to almost every other song on the album imo (except "Unsolved Mysteries"). I would love to hear fans opinions and why they love it (or why its their favorite song) though!

[–][deleted] 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Personally I love fireworks because I think it's one of avey's most emotion vocal performances. Especially "then it passes right by me/it's behind me/now it's gone" I get a lump in my throat hearing that sometimes. Also the piano melody during the chorus and pandas drumming are on point

[–]anxiety_quest 2 points3 points  (0 children)

For Reverend Green is probably my favorite too. Also find Unsolved Mysteries stuck in my head a lot.

[–]sadfrogpdf 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Can we show some love to #1? Someone here said it's like Avey doing some dad singing and Panda as the son.. which is pretty cool.

[–]gregphipps37we got the Good Crew™ 10 points11 points  (5 children)

I like to classify this as the first album in what I call "New Wave AnCo". Before SJ, AnCo didn't use synths for the most part, and they used samples, but it was more subtle. One of the best parts of hearing this album for the first time was how it's just silent until BONEFISH and then you get taken on a journey of synths and jams. I had a great religious experience to For Reverend Green one night, so that song always has a special place in my heart. All the songs on the album are great, but I don't think I like any song more than Safer, which, in my mind, should have been added to the end of the album after Derek. It's such an epic finale to a great desert album, even if the song was designed to be complete nonsense lyrically.

8/8 Gr8 album m8

[–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I agree! Safer is the real closer!

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (3 children)

I disagree with having Safer on there. Also, I don't think it was designed to be nonsensical lyrically. I think it's pretty straightforward actually

[–]gregphipps37we got the Good Crew™ 0 points1 point  (2 children)

At least the earlier iterations of it were before they recorded it. When they went into the studio it's obvious Avey had to write down actual lyrics instead of just saying whatever

[–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (1 child)

Ah, I see. I agree that it has closer written all over it.

However, I don't think its sound would've fit with Strawberry Jam all too well, much like how WWIW?S wouldn't really have fit with MPP's. So you either change how it sounds, or let it stand as it is, how it is. And I'm glad with what we got.

[–]gregphipps37we got the Good Crew™ 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think mainly it seems like a closer because the Spotify version (the one I listen to the most) has Safer right after Derek, not even as a bonus track. It just seems right to me

[–][deleted] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

SJ is definitely my favorite album of theirs. So consistent throughout every song is pretty much flawless. I always like having safer as the closer to this album rather than Derek just because that's how the album is listed in my library and it's a crazy ending song. For reverend green might be one of the best songs ever written, I'm sure everyone already knows that though. This was the second album I heard by anco after merriweather post pavilion and it took me many more listens to really get, but has proved itself to be their best work

[–]sara520 4 points5 points  (1 child)

one of my favorites, maybe my favorite, i can never decide!! totally agree with the part in the description: "a large step forward in the band's evolution." if you want to know what animal collective sounds like, listen to this album. i'm sure many people regard MPP as being THE anco album that solidified what their sound is as a band but i think strawberry jam is really the one. of course mpp was more popular commercially but we all know that doesn't really mean too much. i don't want to use the word "peak" because that implies they'll never get better but i definitely think this album was the most major turning point anco has ever had and maybe ever will have.

[–]luminousclunk 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Totally agree with you there, to me SJ is the quintessential Anco album. It fits right between their more out-there, experimental stuff and the more 'straightforward' music that began around that period, and really represents everything I love about the band. I think Noah described it really well, as being 'synthetic and sharp', yet 'tangy and sweet'.

Peacebone's wacky and noisy yet catchy with a solid structure behind it. You've got Avey's dynamic vocals. #1 and Cuckoo Cuckoo have a more sentimental tone. There's a mix of instant hits and growers. For Reverend Green into Fireworks has that '1-2 punch' you sometimes find in their albums... Strawberry Jam's got it all.

Definitely one of my favourite of their albums. As for favourite/least favourite songs... Peacebone and Rev Green tie for top spot, while I've never been huge on Unsolved Mysteries. Gotta give some praise to #1 too, it took time to grow on me but it's just unlike anything else.

[–]Superspookyghostlike following angels 5 points6 points  (1 child)

I honestly feel this is the "deepest" Animal Collective album. It really tackles the kind of stuff that was kind of in the background on Feels about crossing over from childhood to adulthood, which is Avey's most prominent theme. This is also probably the second darkest Animal Collective album behind Spirit though the upbeat sounds of most songs (Cuckoo Cuckoo excluded) don't make it seem that way.

Particularly, the album is about growing up, the graying of the line between child and adult, and the struggle to meet expectations and even know what those expectations are as an adult. It's also about that familiar Feels theme about finding meaning in your life when you REACH adulthood and the sense of wonder as a child disappears.

"An obsession with the past is like a dead fly"

"Who should I please, I go to sleep worrying"

"....Into nostalgia's palm and feed on the traces"

"What is pain? What's sadness anyway? It's not crying like a child"

"A lucky child don't know how lucky she is"

"It's the trees of this day That i do battle with for the light"

"Young love is fine, just please respect the candles as they line"

"Do you not believe you're dying just because it gets you down"

"He just woke and dreamt and ate and died"

[–]drslg 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"Then you find out you can't ask a baby to cry"

[–]tower07 4 points5 points  (0 children)

By far my favorite album by them. I seriously can't think of anything I don't (personally) like about it. It's so perfect!

[–]mcmonsoon 5 points6 points  (0 children)

This album reminds me so much of summer 2007. I think I had this record on my main rotation for a solid year or so. This was also the year that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows came out and I always associate the song "Cuckoo Cuckoo" with that book. If you're a Potter fan as well, listen to that song and think about Harry's situation at the end of book 7.

[–]Plutonium-Lorestop looking at me 1 point2 points  (1 child)

I know I'm the minority here, but SJ is probably my least favorite effort of theirs. I'm not saying its bad, its still no less than a 7/10 for me, but I just can't get into the majority of the album. Its a nice, happy, poppy album with some killer tracks (i adore peacebone) but aside from that it just seems like a strange transit point from feels to mpp to me.

[–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I appreciate your opinion. SJ has moved around on my list of their albums the most. But right now it's probably at number three or four.

[–]TylerAM 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Listen to this sooooo many times during the long ass bus ride on our school's choir trip my Junior year... Too many AC feels...

This might be the closest to a rock record AC has ever produced; the tracks also have quite a few colorful layers which sound very Black Dice influenced (which is nice; I fucking love Black Dice).

It's hard to say which track is best; I love all of them! Fireworks might be the best, though I prefer the live version with Essplode in the middle. Reverend Green, Cuckoo Cuckoo, and Peacebone all make good seconds. Thirds. Fourths. Fuck you; they're all second.

This is also my favorite album name of AC records; it's just kinda... perfect really.

[–]TheOneAndOnlyKingRat 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Love all of the album but ive gotta say that #1 is my least favourite track

[–]cuttlefishin 2 points3 points  (0 children)

this was the first one i heard back when i was like 13, 14 and it took me a while to get into it but once i did oh man nothing was the same! #1 fucking rules

[–]anxiety_quest 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I always say that Feels or Sung Tongs is my favorite AnCo album, but then I have to include Strawberry Jam in that. I think it's their peak of the more poppy stuff. MPP is obviously 10/10 too, but Strawberry Jam is just better to me.

[–]solidsnake2085AnCo tattooed 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We have finally come to Strawberry Jam. The following story is from my very first experience listening to Animal Collective. The names and places have been changed to protect the identities of those involved.

So late one night while out to sea on the aircraft carrier USS BOAT I was in a DXM trip, about 16 CCCs in. I was down in our work shop listening to music on my iPod, I was just starting to peak when my buddy Rollins came in. He was tripping just as hard I was and brought along our friend Chippy, who was also blasted from CCCs. He came up to me and said, "Hey man, you've got to listen to this music I got. This band is super trippy and good music to goof too." (Goof being code word for DXM) So he pulled out his head phone splitter and let me and Chippy take a listen to it. The very first song he played was "For Reverend Green" I got completely lost in the opening about bigfoot creatures, even though I had no idea what they were saying. Then when the guitar picked up after the clip was over I instantly got chills down my spine and I felt like the song was going into my soul. I didn't really understand all the vocals at first but I knew this was amazing. I closed my eyes and let the visuals take over, I was in a completely different place that I have never been to before. It felt like I gliding through the air like Phoenix that arose from the ashes of his former self. I could see everything in the world and it all made sense.

The song seemed like it lasted an eternity but in a good way, as soon as the song was over I asked him to play it again because I was so enthralled by it. He told me I have to listen another song first, that song was Peacebone. I think my peak was at it's highest because the opening of the song made me forget I was a human being in this plane of existence. Chippy couldn't handle the opening and had to take her headphones off because she said, "It sounds like there are flies in my head!". I continued to listen to the song and I realized it was a masterpiece. I can't really describe everything that happened during the rest of the song because I think I lost all control of my body but I knew this was going to be a big part of my life. After Peacebone was over, my friend had to go back to work but I told him I needed to have this music and I asked him who it was. That's when he told me the two most important words I have ever heard in my life, "Animal Collective".

That is my very first experience with AC.

I can't really place a favorite track but after listening to SJ the past 6 years I think "Unsolved Mysteries" and "Peacebone" are my top tracks from the album. "Peacebone" was my first AC tattoo, I got it while on deployment to Turkey and the rest have been following suit. SJ is one of my almost daily albums to listen to, even if I don't listen to the whole thing everyday I still put on at least two tracks a day. I really couldn't even imagine where I would be in my life right now if I didn't have AC in it. Their music really has changed me for the better and I have to say that SJ is probably my favorite album from them of all time.

TLDR;

I was in the NAVY, Robotripping and my buddy let me listen to AC and it changed my life. Also it made me get tattoos.

[–]animalsong11 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Animal Song - Animal Sounds Song For Kids - The Happy Animal Choir: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qN4i-TavexA

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Strawberry Jam wasn't my first exposure to AnCo, but it was the first AnCo album I listened to all the way through (unless you count the solo stuff). The first time I heard it, it was a YouTube video and it included Safer before Derek. To this day, I still remember being in my dorm (completely sober mind you) and just tripping out to that song. Other than that, my favorites off the album are Peacebone and For Reverend Green.