Animal Collective's Odd Wonder

Those with adventurous musical tastes may want to visit the odd world of Animal Collective, which smashes together electronic and acoustic elements into a brilliant mixture often called, if somewhat inaccurately, "avant-garde" and "psychedelic," says the New Yorker. Sasha Frere-Jones explores the group's eighth album, Strawberry Jam, and finds it slightly more accessible, if no less uncompromising, than previous works.

Animal Collective started in 2000 as the duo Avey Tare and Panda Bear, adding and subtracting other similarly pseudonymed members until settling on the "collective" name. Frere-Jones likens the music to paintings by de Kooning, "bristling with sonic color and motion," and ventures to a concert, where songs were deconstructed into a lush auditory swirl. (More Animal Collective stories.)