Animal Collective: Strawberry Jam (2LP) [DOMINO]

Why you'll love it

Domino presents it as a 2LP set in a high-gloss gatefold with a picture sleeve for each disc. Strawberry Jam was the band's first record for the label and their first to reach the Billboard 200.

This edition

• 2LP set
• Gatefold jacket
• Picture sleeves

About the album

Animal Collective decided their seventh album should be a desert record, mostly because they hadn't made one yet. Avey Tare, Panda Bear, Geologist and Deakin set up at Wave Lab Studios in Tucson, Arizona, where Geologist (Brian Weitz) had once lived, with engineer Scott Colburn, who had also recorded Feels. Geologist first revealed the title and track listing on the band's fan message board in May 2007, and Deakin told Billboard the new songs were chiseled and shiver-inducing.

Most of the songs had been road-tested at shows through 2005 and 2006, and in the studio they came out sharper and brighter than anything the band had done before. "Peacebone" bubbles and crunches, "Fireworks" builds into a huge, yearning chorus, "For Reverend Green" lets Avey Tare's voice crack wide open, and "#1" pulses like a slow-motion dance track, while "Chores" and "Winter Wonder Land" bounce along in bright, giddy bursts.

Label manager Peter Berard heard a new clarity in these songs and predicted they would bring in newcomers. Two years later Merriweather Post Pavilion proved him right, and we've been meaning to send the man a fruit basket ever since.

Also at Kops: more Animal Collective on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On Domino (cat# DNO156), a reissue of the 2007 album.