35.

Animal Collective
Hollinndagain
(St. Ives Records, 2002)

The first of three appearances by Animal Collective on this here list, Hollinndagain embodies the primal audacities of the band in its early form. When listening to this back to back with Merriweather Post Pavilion, the Animal Collective of Hollinndagain/Here Comes The Indian days may as well have been a completely different band. I put Hollinndagain above Here Comes The Indian mostly because of the two supreme slabs of drone that open the former. I think these are the best textures the band has ever made. That along with “Forest Gospel,” the namesake of this here blog, and the rest of the similarly atonally prehistoric bombast is what makes this album so essential for me. In fact, there was a time that this was my favourite album from AC. But, as you know, things are in constant flux. Either way, an essential album of this decade for sure.

-Thistle