Artist: Animal Collective
Title: People
Format: 12" Single
Label: Fat Cat
Catalogue Number: 12FAT060
Year of Release: 2007
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Tracklisting
A1 People
A2 Tikwid
B1 My Favourite Colors
B2 People (live)
You might have noticed by now that I'm rather a fan of Animal Collective, so it'll come as no surprise that I recommend this single wholeheartedly.
The title track itself is something of a departure, and wildly different from previous single choices. It starts with a lovely slow bassline, light percussion and quietly strummed guitars, and has a sense of something building or coming to a head. A proper drum beat enters, propelling the song along, and then one of the two words that make up the entire lyrics of the song is sung. It goes something like: Yeah Ye-AH, Yeah YE-ah, and it's all coming together rather nicely, and then the second word is a drawn-out shout: People!
Now it's an unusual thing to shout, and I've read some opinion that it could perhaps be meant as a rallying cry, or to grab the audience's attention, but I think there's more fear and frustration in it. You know what people are like.
The music doesn't really change for the rest of the track, apart from at the end where everything fades out except the drums and percussion for a few bars, but it's a beautiful, if mystifying piece of work. What's it for? What's any music for?
Luckily Tikwid picks us up and hurtles us through another, more typical, AC song, before we disappear up our own music-theory backsides. Trademark fast lyrical delivery (lyrics on Songmeanings.net), odd song structure and harmonics. It somehow doesn't make it to the status of 'great tune', but it's an admirable B-side. And it's berries in my heart's bread, indeed.
My Favourite Colors (sic), looking at my notes, is 'slow and wobbly'. Gave me a feeling that it was odd for the sake of it. It is nice and short, and then we're back into People. Live, it is much the same as in the studio, which is to say magnificent.
