Animal Collective – “Strung With Everything”
In a couple of weeks, Animal Collective will release their long-awaited new album Time Skiffs. The record features all four members of AnCo, with Panda Bear once again back in the mix, and it’s the first proper Animal Collective full-length since 2016’s Painting With. Thus far, Animal Collective have already released the singles “Prester John” and “Walker.” Today, they’ve unleashed another one called “Strung With Everything.”
“Strung With Everything” is a big, bouncy, utopian psychedelic rocker. It’s full of sunny harmonies and sitar sounds, and it stretches out to nearly seven minutes. The song’s lyrics imagine a world falling apart and two people getting together to watch it all happen: “You know I would not be afraid/ With your head against my shoulder/ And even though all hearts are strange/ We’re all strung with everything.” “Strung With Everything” is as woozy and splashy as you’d expect from Animal Collective, but the melody is fairly sharp and straightforward, and it’s got a bit of a playful Paul Simon thing going on.
“Strung With Everything” has a psychedelic animated video from frequent collaborator Abby Portner, the sister of band member Avey Tare. In a press release, Portner says:
Recently for Animal Collective’s live shows, I have been designing and animating all of the video content out of cut paper. I have been editing together symbols and colored static silhouettes that match the music’s feeling and rhythm. The videos are like pictographs that tell a story organically and simply. For the “Strung with Everything” video, we wanted to continue with this process to match the style of the band’s live shows in a music video.
Check it out below.
Time Skiffs is out 2/4 on Domino. Pre-order it here.