Animal Collective

“PAINTING WITH”

TNSrecords

Before now, Animal Collective was a band married to their routine. Their habitual practice of auditioning and subsequently tweaking new material live in front of adoring audiences gave them the freedom to build and refine their music from nothing, as well as the privilege of having a direct line of communication to an engaged fan base during the compositional stages of making their records.

It partially explains how a band with such a distinct and enduring legacy has managed to maintain it through their gradual, nearly 20-year evolution of making wildly unique and deeply beloved albums.

On “Painting With,” for one reason or another, Animal Collective has abandoned that method for a more traditional approach. Instead of piecing together the extracts of live improvisation into a somehow cohesive whole, Panda Bear, Avey Tare, and Geologist (longtime band member Deakin sits out this record) came together specifically to craft an album the old-fashioned way: self-contained songs, standard formatting, no major experimental disruptions. In many ways, “Painting With” is what Animal Collective sounds like when they stick to the script.

The first impression one gets about the album is that Animal Collective feel bound to a constricting method of songwriting that simply doesn’t suit their incredibly elastic style. The band’s newly dedicated emphasis on a durable, straightforward songwriting architecture interferes with their essential ability to capture hazy melodies in unexpected forms and jostle listeners between conflicting rhythmic patterns.

Instead, they simulate it, mostly through a constant barrage of call-and-response vocal harmonies and swirling sound effects. These are not new to the Animal Collective playbook, but perhaps quite a bit overused here without anything else to establish the psychedelic backdrop fundamental to their sound.

Sonically, most of the album struggles to find that balance between straightforward, pop-minded musicality and the band’s established, admittedly messy heritage.

ON TOUR: March 5 — Roseland Theater, Portland; SOLD OUT; www.cascadetickets.com.

— Colin Fitzgerald,

PopMatters.com