Pitchfork

"People" is a pretty good example of what turns some off from Animal Collective. The whole song is just a repeating guitar line, a held chord, some squiggly percussion, and Avey Tare doing a little self-stim call-and-response, alternating "Yeah, ye-AH" with the equally profound "Yeah, YE-ah". Oh, and screaming "People!!!" at throat-shredding volume through a distortion pedal every few bars, followed by a banshee wail that echoes between the speakers via a crude delay. And that's about it. Add to this the usual speculation about the sincerity of a young pack of art-rockers based in Brooklyn, and it's not hard to imagine large swaths of indie music fans moving on to something else.

Here's the thing though: "People" is also a good example of what turns the rest of us on to Animal Collective. I'm hearing a horizontal piece of music, built from a single idea that takes its time to explore the (admittedly limited) possibilities of its premise, and then moves on. And the peaks are thrilling; with sufficient volume this thing induces the sort of satisfying bliss only possible through well-executed drone rock. The song doesn't mean anything, of course, and I'm sure it wasn't difficult to make, but none of that matters: It still sounds damn good while managing to transport me to a very specific place. Animal Collective thinks enough of "People" to include an additional live version at the end of this four-song EP, a track with a bit less power and focus that nonetheless suggests how well the song could blend into a show. Its recording date indicates that they've been playing it live for close to two years, meaning it's incubated long enough to get it onto a record.

As far as the other two songs here, "Tikwid" is a sweet, slightly twisted ballad very much in the vein of Feels, specifically echoing bits of "Grass" with its sing-songy melody. It's almost good enough to work on that record, actually, becoming even more appealing during its soaring wordless section where Avey Tare airs out his falsetto and cuts the sunny warmth with odd vocal effects. Speaking of which, vocal effects are the sole focus of the two-minute snippet "My Favorite Colors". Here the Collective channels their barnyard brethren, wrapping their exaggerated vibratos around a wisp of tinkly piano to sound like Ethel Merman slurring her way through a version of "Old MacDonald". It's an ultimately inconsequential track deservedly fated to round out a stopgap EP, but it's another example of something that Animal Collective fans are likely to find interesting, while most of humanity lurches for the skip button.