Animal Collective

Animal Collective

Animal Collective is a US experimental band from Baltimore, active since 2000. The group centres on David Portner, Noah Lennox, Brian Weitz and Josh Dibb, who also use the names Avey Tare, Panda Bear, Geologist and Deakin. Releases under the Animal Collective name can involve any combination of these four members, and Josh Dibb sometimes steps away from recording and touring without leaving the group permanently.

Style and approach

The band works across experimental pop, avant-pop, electronic, freak folk, avant-garde pop and related forms, with music that also draws on psychedelia, noise and electronica. Their recordings make frequent use of loops, drones, sampling, vocal harmonies and sound collage, and they are associated with experimental rock and pop.

Formation and early work

Portner and Lennox begin collaborating while at school, and the group later forms around those early partnerships. The members found the independent label Paw Tracks in 1999. The band’s debut album, Spirit They’re Gone Spirit They’ve Vanished, appears in 2000. Earlier releases are later folded into the group’s discography, and the project is not formally established as Animal Collective until the 2003 album Ark, which includes all four members.

Breakthrough releases

Animal Collective gains wider recognition with Strawberry Jam in 2007, which is the band’s first album to enter the Billboard 200. In 2009, Merriweather Post Pavilion becomes their most commercially successful release, reaching number 13 in the United States. Its psychedelic pop sound is later noted for influencing independent music.

Selected albums

The band’s studio albums include Spirit They’re Gone Spirit They’ve Vanished (2000), Danse Manatee (2001), Campfire Songs (2003), Here Comes the Indian (2003, later reissued as Ark), Sung Tongs (2004), Feels (2005), Strawberry Jam (2007), Merriweather Post Pavilion (2009), Centipede Hz (2012), Painting With (2016), Time Skiffs (2022) and Isn’t It Now? (2023).