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Campfire Songs - ALBUM DISCUSSION THREAD (self.AnimalCollective)

submitted by pigammon

Hello. Very sorry it's been five months since the last one of these. Life got in the way, and when it got out of the way the boys decided to announce an album. Nonetheless:

Campfire Songs occupies a weird place in the Animal Collective discography. By most it's considered to be the fourth (or third) Animal Collective album, but it's also technically the first (and only) album by an entirely different band called Campfire Songs. The boys used different pseudonyms and everything. Five tracks long and almost entirely acoustic, this is a real hidden curiosity in the AnCo back catalog. Contrary to popular belief this isn't the first album with all four of the boys - Geologist recorded the album but he doesn't play on it.

“One of us—Brian [Weitz], I think—discovered this really sweet microphone that Sony makes that works with portable minidisc players,” Portner says. “Brian and I had an apartment for a while, [and] every time we jammed, we’d set up the minidisc player and record it. We would start with an idea and just go with it. You’d never know where one song started and one finished. After our first tour, we had no money to go into a studio, so we just took this idea to Maryland.”

“Totally in the middle of the woods with nothing nearby,” Lennox says. “We had an idea for a long time for an album that gave the feeling of the campfire . . . just warm, inviting. We went out there, on this screened back porch, and had a bunch of minidisc players with these little Sony microphones that were so amazing. And we put one or two in the room and one way outside. We wanted to record the atmosphere and have that transport the listener to where we were.”

Source

  1. Queen in My Pictures 9:58

  2. Doggy 4:39

  3. Two Corvettes 4:58

  4. Moo Rah Rah Rain 11:01

  5. De Soto De Son 11:35

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/2dD8TRCBNGI9eBg4k3PLnY

RYM: https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/campfire-songs/campfire-songs-1/

CD: UK USA

Vinyl: This is the only Animal Collective album that's never been pressed on vinyl. Annoying, right?

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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[–][deleted] 16 points17 points  (0 children)

I fucking love this album.

/endcontribution

[–]octaveflight 12 points13 points  (0 children)

DE Soto De son is probably my favorite. I like the album, but I think there's a song or two on there that doesn't do it for me.

[–]camcamcam710"Happy October!" "YOU SAID IT!" 8 points9 points  (0 children)

"Do you think it still holds up after all this time?" Let me just say nothing else will be playing when I try to fall asleep at night and can't. This album holds up, all the time. I love it dearly, so dearly. These lyrics as well from De Soto De Son, one of my favorite compositions personally, are some of the greatest I've heard in all of my life:
"When I felt your heart stop beating, the room brought out the silence in your breathing."
"The sky has breaks, what a good way to rise.. The set of the sun will surely take all day.. Taking it's time..."
Wonderful. Pure bliss.

[–]Bearz_n_Cru 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Absolutely love this album. The band at their most beautifully tranquil. Doggy is my favorite song on it but it’s also the reason I don’t listen this album as much as the others. No song makes me as uncontrollably sad as Doggy does. I cry every time I listen to it

[–]bushdid311wow 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Love this album. It’s in my regular morning rotation at work. So relaxing at a surface level, but I also love that the deeper you dig the more heartbreaking the songs are lyrically. Basically every song is sad or tragic in some way.

I prefer to treat it as one long song but if I had to pick a favorite it’d be de Soto de son.

Only thing I don’t like about this album is I can’t own it on vinyl.

[–]tyrionlannister87 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I will forever associate this album with a bright spring morning. This album is slept on so much it pains me. I can’t count the number of times I would wander around my college campus stoned off my gourd just looking at the trees and the grass with this album in my earbuds. The transition from Queen in my Pictures to Doggy is my favorite moment in recorded music.

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

Am i the only one that falls asleep to this album? But like in a good way! Not like “yawn this boring” but like “yawn this beautiful”. Looking forward to falling asleep to Tangerine Reef.

[–]Yung_Dean[🍰] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Beautiful album. Perfect ambience. Those three boys made something so personal together, yet it's so comfortable. Possibly their most consistent release.

[–]Astro_Van_Allen 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Love this record. Love the versions of these songs in the animal crack box even more.

[–]MeehoyMeenoyMeenoy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The transition from Queen to Doggy is one of my favorite Animal Collective moments.

[–]SmegmaMilkshake1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My 2nd favorite AnCo release, right behind Prospect Hummer.

[–]ty_743 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'll have to give it a light 10/10