This has been the best reviewed album of the year on the blog-o-sphere. I was only vaguely familiar with them before it came out and all the lavish praised it received intrigued me. By intrigued, I mean it set off my contrarian alarm and made me want to mock the album even though I had not heard it. Thus, I had to get a copy of it to review and eventually mock; but, I did not want to pay for it or download it illegally so I went the lame root and requested it at the Library and was 13th in line and low and behold 4 months after it came out I am writing a review of the album after having heard it 15 times or so. Here is that review:
 The album is sonically interesting throughout. The opening song “ In The Flowers” starts off with these trippy sounds that sound like electronic whale song, with footsteps marching in the background, then a slow build up with more sounds and actual instruments, building up to the opening vocals. I used the term vocals instead of lyrics because while there are some interesting lyrics in the album they are pretty much an afterthought compared to the music. This is the opposite of most of my favorite artists to listen to from Bright Eyes to Biggie where the lyrics are as important if not more important than the music in the song. In a way the music and all the different sounds in this album are part of the lyrics that’s why it is best experienced using a good set of speakers or head phones.
 The lyrics to my favorite song on the album “My Girls” should be noted with their repeated call for a minimalist version of the  American Dream: “
“Is it much that I feel I need -A solid soul and the blood I bleed -With a little girl, and by my spouse -I only want a proper house-I don't mean to seem like I care about material things like a social status -I just want four walls and adobe slabs for my girls” The song opens with a cool synth-keyboard effect that repeats throughout the song as again different things are added to the song from hand claps to drums.
 Despite all their experimentalism, at times the song get a little too formulaic with the slow adding of new sounds throughout a song. For example, “Guys Eyes” sounds like an electronic jungle that slowly has different animals calling to each other. I could have more variety in the structure of the songs.
 The other major problem is that it does not have a lot of utility value. If I want an adrenalin boost, I’ll listen to Jay Z. If I want to get over a girl, I’ll listen to some Dashboard Confessional. I can’t finish the sentence I want to listen to Animal Collective when… It can give you a spaced out calm feeling of serenity or contemplativeness, but who wants that. Rock music is about love, hate, fear, desire, despair, strong emotions. I don’t get strong emotions out of this so it does not have any strong therapeutic qualities.
 On the other hand it does fit one of Rock’s music important qualities in that it sets a generational divide and most likely will piss people off. An important part of music is that now and then styles of music have to change to a point where people who are out of their teens barely recognize it as music and this has that quality so it gets point for that. It is a passive rebellion.