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Danse Manatee - ALBUM DISCUSSION THREAD (self.AnimalCollective)

submitted by pigammon[M]

Hi everyone! Thanks for all the comments on the STGSTV thread. I doubt this one will generate quite as much of a response...

Danse Manatee is AnCo's second album, and the first to feature Brian Weitz, aka Geologist. When it was released it was received harshly compared to their debut, with Pitchfork notoriously giving it a 3.9 (still their lowest AnCo rating). However, between 2001 and now, it's gained a massive cult following, and is loved by many, including myself and the band.

We used guitars drums synths and made a bunch of sounds on minidiscs and did percussion stuff on whatever was lying around. We recorded part of it at Dave's parents house, some at the old AC house in Brooklyn Heights, some in my college dorm room and some at my college radio station. Basically wherever we could find a quiet spot. We just wanted to explore a new style of playing on record. This was after the three of us had spent most of the summer improvising and playing around with fusing song structure and noise and looking for ways to do it with fluidity. We were also interested in extreme frequencies, both low and high, and how they occupied space in the room and moved around in your heads. That record upset a lot of people, especially the people that really loved Spirit. Most people still dislike it as we saw when Fat Cat released the two of them together. But we're pretty proud of it.

  1. "A Manatee Dance" 1:02
  2. "Penguin Penguin" 2:15
  3. "Another White Singer (Little White Glove)" 1:58
  4. "Essplode" 3:23
  5. "Meet the Light Child" 8:44
  6. "Runnin' the Round Ball" 2:07
  7. "Bad Crumbs" 1:43
  8. "The Living Toys" 7:48
  9. "Throwin' the Round Ball" 1:35
  10. "Ahhh Good Country" 8:18
  11. "Lablakely Dress" 2:38
  12. "In the Singing Box" 5:36

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/0jaso2GacWot92UZ3LCxhM

RYM: https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/panda-geologist-and-avey/danse-manatee/

CD: https://www.amazon.com/Spirit-Theyre-Theyve-Vanished-Manatee/dp/B0000BXBYA

Vinyl: https://fat-cat.co.uk/release/danse-manatee

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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[–]WARREPORT 15 points16 points  (1 child)

meet the light child is honestly AnCo’s most underrated track ever. its so beautifully made and the breakdown is fantastic

[–]Lagswitch 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I also really love the deep bass synth that comes in at the start, such a great contrast to the high frequencies played throughout

[–]Lagswitch 11 points12 points  (1 child)

Duck yes this record is so good. It has its own feel, and really takes time to apperciate imo. Lots of harsh and abstract sounds that are real abrasive at first, but like most of anco, i grew to love it. Favorites: meet the light child, lablakely dress, essplode, in the singing box.

Also I really love bad crumbs dispite the Criticism here.

[–]pigammon[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Bad Crumbs is awesome!

[–]zilgendammit so good 8 points9 points  (1 child)

I do like this album, but I find I listen to it the least, because I just have to be in a certain mood for it. It's a really consistent album honestly, I always loved how the first 3 songs all kinda fly by taking you thru different flavors of primal vocals and harsh sound and then you get to the hit essplode...and I gotta say this is some of pandas most creative drumming on esspole and meet the light child. Good shit. Only song I really don't like too much is the living toys, which happens to be one of the only AC songs I really don't enjoy at all haha but that's just me. Good album overall though. Very childlike. Like little agressive children

[–]Superspookyghostlike following angels 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I also don't like the Living Toys, it's either my least favorite Animal Collective song or very close to the bottom.

[–]Maxiscoolerthanyouhehe 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I’m copying one of my past comments here, but I think it still stands.

Danse Manatee is definitely a criminally underrated Animal Collective record seeing as many people put it at the bottom of their lists, but I think it is a very ethereal album that puts you in the mindset of nostalgia and times barely not forgotten.

The high pitched frequencies and the yelling can be jarring at first, but in my opinion they are necessary to give off the mood that Avey, Panda, and Geo wanted.

[–]archerthedude 8 points9 points  (0 children)

My least favorite in their discography tbh.

[–]octaveflight 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I haven't listened to it in a while but at the moment I recalI that i do like Another White Singer (Little White Glove), Essplode, Runnin' the Round Ball, Throwin' the Round Ball, Ahhh Good Country, and Lablakely Dress. I don't really remember how I feel about the others. I've always thought throwin the round ball to be so pretty <3. I'm really glad danse exists. Definitely not throw away, like some people tend to view it.

[–]Ghost652 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It's a very interesting album but I legitimately don't know if I like it or not. I can listen to Hollindagin pretty easily, but Danse I have to be in the most particular mood to stomach it at all.

[–]Aidansm123 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Favorite band, I have almost a religious appreciation for their music both from AnCo and from their side projects. My favorite album period is Sung Tongs and fav song is Winter's Love, I know the lyrics to nearly every song they've ever released.

I hate this record. I just hate it, I cannot stand it.

[–]Andrewsarchus-Metal 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Penguin Penguin, the Living Toys, Ahhh Good Country, and In The Singing Box are standouts for me.

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

I'll listen to it when I get home and get back to you later. I'm nervous because I've had difficulty getting in to their earlier stuff.

Edit/Update: my initial bias against this album due to it being some of their earlier work may have been working against me a bit, but even without that I still don't think I like this album very much. Their early work is just too weird in not-quite-the-right-way for me. I see potential for a lot of these tracks to become "songs", but none of them ever quite make that leap (which might have been the point, I dunno, I'm not a huge AnCo fan).

[–]derkur94 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I really enjoy this album, it showed their fans that you can have structure and experimentation in the same place. Also the whole noise rock trinity of danse, holidinigin, and Indian is my favorite anco era.

[–]2chainz_1cup 2 points3 points  (0 children)

my favorite track on this album is A Manatee Danse. Yep. I love it. it feels good in my ear holes.

[–]Cherry_Cherall white and naked 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's absolute insanity and I love it. The whole vibe of the album really resonates with me, it's unlike anything else. The only song I really particularly dislike is Meet the Light Child, I feel like it kills the momentum of the album to an extent. Other than that, I actually really like the rest of the album despite it's eccentricies.

[–]The_Great_Curveleave my bOOOOY ALOOONE 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Essplode is like my 4th favorite AnCo song ever. It just gives me this weird unexplainable feeling every time I listen to it, like this happy melancholy feeling, you know?

As for the rest of the album it’s not something I’d regularly listen to, but if I’m in the mood for surreal noise music then this is what I listen to. I love the surreal, borderline creepy atmosphere it creates, at least for me, because the only time I ever listened to it in full it was at like 2 in the morning in my room in pitch black darkness. I’d give it a solid 6/10

[–]AxeWorldRugrats Original Score by Panda Bear 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If it weren't so cheaply mixed, I'd probably love this album to death, but alas...

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Penguin Penguin is my shiiiiiiit!

[–]MaeBorowskisGhost 4 points5 points  (1 child)

It’s whack tbh

Song titles are AC’s best work of nomenclature in their discography

[–][deleted] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Why's it whack?

[–]DBFatuousJeffrey 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Essplode, the round ball songs and in the Singing Box are all dope. Not crazy about the rest.

[–]fusrodalek 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is the last album in their discography I listened to, in anticipation of it being as bad as people said. I was very pleasantly surprised—I think it’s a pretty singular album and is one of the more unconventionally psychedelic records they put out. I highly doubt their music would be as textured without the sound experiments they did on this album.

[–]AnarchyAppleNow I'm hallucinating, Queen in my pictures 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In The Singing Box is by far my favourite closer of theirs. And this album is probably in my top 3.