Today's Song: Animal Collective 'New Town Burnout'
Animal Collective makes music like San Francisco/Cleveland/Seattle/Blaine, Missouri/Iceland/everywhere (apparently) makes weather: If you don't like a melody, wait a few bars. That's the case for their twisty ninth full-length, Centipede Hz, which is out this week. Their endlessly shifting melodies and tempos make for an exhausting experience — I was listening to this album at the gym yesterday and noticed that it only made my workout seem longer. Though psychedelic, this music is no poor man's vacation — it is demanding and unsettling. Acid is an uncomfortable drug, and so is Centipede Hz.
I'd call "New Town Burnout" one of the album's straightforward entries, but the woozy beat, driving buzz and shrill sound shards should let you know that this assessment is relative.