Review: Animal Collective - Fall Be Kind EP (* * * *)

(This one got GOLD over at In Review Online)

Heaping praise on indie superstars Animal Collective is starting to seem too easy, unnecessary even. Don’t get me wrong; AC have earned their status as the preeminent boundary-pushing experimental group working today. This past year alone they released 2009’s best album and my personal favorite of theirs, Merriweather Post Pavilion. But the announcement of their Fall Be Kind EP almost prompted me to just say, “It’s Animal Collective, of course it’s amazing." Listen to it, love it, and then we’ll all move on. And if Fall Be Kind was just “good,” or even great in exactly the same way the LP that preceded it was great, maybe I could settle with that generalization. But in keeping with tradition, Animal Collective has crafted another distinctly superb and somehow progressive set of songs, noteworthy for its own merits and not simply as another strong addition to the band’s remarkable catalog. (Read the full review @ In Review Online)