Ranked: Animal Collective Albums from Worst to Best

With the release of founding member Panda Bear's new album, we revisit the psych-rock group's full discography.

By Matthew Perpetua

Panda Bear's new solo album, Tomboy, comes out this week. It's his fourth, but the fourteenth overall release from Animal Collective, the loosely aggregated group of psychedelic musicians who broke through with 2005's Feels. In celebration, we enlisted Matthew Perpetua, who founded the internet's first MP3 blog, Fluxblog, to rank the group's full discography (excluding EPs — we're not crazy).

14. Avey Tare and Kría Brekkan, Pullhair Rubeye (2007)

Out of all the full-length studio albums produced by Animal Collective's principal members, this is definitely the most unlistenable. Avey Tare recorded this album with his wife at the time, Kría Brekkan of the Icelandic band Múm. The entire set is presented with the audio in reverse, which is cute for a minute or so but totally aggravating after half an hour. You can find non-reversed versions of Pullhair Rubeye on the internet, but unfortunately it's not much more compelling when played forwards.

Listen: "Who Welles in My Hoff"

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13. Panda Bear, Panda Bear (1998)

Panda Bear's first solo album, also the first official release to be associated with what would eventually become Animal Collective, is basically a set of home demos recorded while he was in college. There are some charming moments here and there, but you can file this under inessential juvenilia.

Listen: "O Please Bring Her Back"

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12. Animal Collective, Danse Manatee (2001)

Originally credited to Avey Tare, Panda Bear, and Geologist, but later reissued under the Animal Collective name, Danse Manatee is mostly a collection of abstract jams and experiments with extremely high and low frequency sounds. It's often more interesting than enjoyable, but the record does contain a few strong compositions such as the eerie "In the Singing Box" and the shambling yet sublime ballad "Essplode."

Listen: "Essplode"

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11. Animal Collective, Campfire Songs (2003)

Campfire Songs is basically a field recording of the group performing something akin to a campfire sing-along in a screened-in porch on a very cold day. It's a very evocative set of songs — you can practically feel the chilly air come through the speakers — but as pretty as it gets, the songs are rather slight.

Listen: "Doggy"

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10. Panda Bear, Young Prayer (2004)

Panda recorded this raw, elegiac set of acoustic tracks shortly after the death of his father. Young Prayer is by turns haunting, distraught, calm and joyful. There are some beautiful moments here, but the album's improvised, free-drifting quality can get grating after a while.

Listen: "Track 1"

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9. Animal Collective, Here Comes the Indian (2003)

Here Comes the Indian, the group's first official album as Animal Collective, builds on the quasi-tribal rhythms and electronic noise bursts of Danse Manatee, but is more structured and less extreme in its dynamic shifts. The album's peaks — the clattering "Native Belle" and the blaring "Slippi" — are hyperactive and thrilling.

Listen: "Slippi"

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8. Avey Tare, Down There (2010)

Avey Tare's first proper solo album is murky, bleak, and occasionally sort of funky. Like Panda's Young Prayer, Down There was made during a particularly dark period in the artist's life. The album is a bit uneven overall, but tracks such as "Cemeteries," "Ghost of Books," and "Heather in the Hospital" rank among his most emotionally affecting pieces.

Listen: "Ghost of Books"

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