Time Skiffs
| Animal Collective
Time Skiffs
Time Skiffs is the eleventh studio album by American experimental pop band Animal Collective, released on February 4, 2022, on Domino. It is their first album in six years and marks the return of band member Deakin, who sat out of the recording and touring of the band's previous album, Painting With (2016). Time Skiffs was preceded by four singles: "Prester John", "Walker", "Strung with Everything", and "We Go Back". -Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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Pitchfork
After a prolific period of experimentation, Animal Collective return with an album that achieves a peaceful equilibrium between their immersive 3D soundscaping and innate melodic charms.
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The Guardian
lovely tunes from the comfort zone.
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PopMatters
Time Skiffs finds Animal Collective in a calm, contemplative state yet places them closer in style to most indie rock bands.
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Rolling Stone
The psychedelic band’s latest is a good mix of avant and pop.
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EW
Throughout their career, AnCo have remained largely out of conversation with what's happening in popular music. But the stretched-out vibes of Time Skiffs fit in the current indie environment with surprising ease, given the recent trend towards more jam band–inflected sounds coming from acts like the War on Drugs and Real Estate. Even as they recall their own past, Animal Collective continues to push their work into new, exciting places — and Time Skiffs serves as a reminder of their singular gifts.
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Paste Magazine
It makes sense to want to compare Time Skiffs to Feels—here we see the four members of Animal Collective once again convening to create straightforward instrumentation for a chaotic era, beset by personal and existential struggles in a new world, yet channeling and transforming them into songs of immense, heartfelt splendor. It’s always been about the process of making music for this band, and after a decade of critical busts and two years of a global pandemic, the passion that’s present here begs the belief that they’ve finally regained that unbridled joy, once again finding something really sweet happening amongst themselves.
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Sputnik Music
First, Animal Collective managed to accomplish a neat trick here (don’t ask me how): while a bunch of the individual songs go on longer than they need to, the album as a whole doesn’t feel overstuffed, and more often than not I’m eager to drench myself its sun-soaked vibes all over again right after finishing a spin. Second, the veteran group has managed to get a long-suffering skeptic to care about their music, indeed, enough to write four mostly-positive paragraphs about this late-career release. What a world!
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Third Coast Review
Animal Collective is not a conventional band, and that’s more than ok. They have proven over time that they can make a great indie rock tune while simultaneously releasing experimental reverb driven psychedelia. I am a huge fan of both sounds in general; so this was a very interesting and pleasant treat. They’ve been in the game long enough to be able to create as freely as they wish and proved Sunday night they can put on a hypnotizing and entirely enthralling show.
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No Ripcord
It is debatable whether Animal Collective ever truly blazed new trails—I could be persuaded either way—but these days its members appear diminished, former pioneers reduced to mere sonic pedestrians, shuffling along at a steady pace. Time Skiffs isn’t terrible; it’s inoffensive, nice, surprisingly easy-going. But isn’t that the most damning judgement of all? To think this band was the future once.
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AllMusic
It's admirable that Time Skiffs finds Animal Collective returning to the pop side of their vision without trying to completely replicate the pristine electronics and party-starting rhythms of their most celebrated phases. Instead of regressing or stepping away from the edge when their sound grew too unhinged, the band continues to evolve in unforecastable directions on Time Skiffs. It's an especially lucid reading of the sound they've been perfecting for over two decades at this point, and one that adds a human warmth to a group that's long been defined by their otherworldly nature.
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The Line of Best Fit
Animal Collective remain ambitiously addictive on Time Skiffs.
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Uproxx
‘Time Skiffs’ Is Animal Collective’s Comeback Record.
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NME
After a few wobbly releases (and one that was literally unlistenable), the beloved Baltimore band have found their footing again.
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Slant Magazine
A Wistful, Quietly Reflective Album.
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musicOMH
Time Skiffs is a vibrant album, suggesting Animal Collective have well and truly rekindled their collective fire – and because of that, the pleasure is all ours. Gather round and enjoy its heartening warmth.
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Clash Magazine
Whilst there are a collection of tracks that’s lyrical content is shrouded in nostalgia, they are perfectly tempered with tracks like ‘Prester John’ that lean sitting on the bands more anthemic side. ‘Time Skiffs’ is an album that sees the Animal Collective championing the importance to look back, but not stare.
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The Skinny
Following a six-year hiatus, Animal Collective's 11th studio album sounds like a band picking up where they left off, but unfortunately leaves you wanting more.
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The Needle Drop
AnCo's first album as a quartet in nearly a decade is a mostly lovely return to form.
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Pop Goes the Weasel
Deakin doesn’t have access to Panda Bear’s angelic register or Avery Trae’s ecstatic energy, but there is something quietly captivating about his relaxed, honeyed croon. It personifies the qualities of the record as a whole. ‘We’ll always come round, round / round, round’ he repeats softly as the vocals fade and organ notes swell and dissipate. A few years ago that may have sounded more like a threat than a promise. It’s good to have the real Animal Collective back.
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Secret Meeting
And while the genre-blending pop here doesn’t hit the swirling heights of the brilliant My Girls, Time Skiffs is arguably their most compelling and appealing record since.
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AV Club
Animal Collective finds the groove—and refuses to leave—on the consistently compelling Time Skiffs.
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Under the Radar Magazine
Atop a jaunty, skipping rhythm Avey Tare sings about stray observations from the road before breaking off into a rapturous, fractalizing detour that dilates and distends like food coloring added to cream. Even within such historical constraints of tradition, the group manages to find new flavors to express, new combinations to offer. The collective’s preservation of our musical past continues to make time skiff and point the way to the future.
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Gigwise
Unshowy, confident + comforting.
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Northern Transmissions
It’s evident that the quartet, as its complete formation, has matured and allowed itself to centre in its songwriting focus. Never losing their need to wander and allow themselves to exponentially experiment, yet aligning in an intent that grounds them so viscerally.
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Surviving the Golden Age
There are certain elements that continue to help find Animal Collective find their own place and niche in the given music soundscapes of 2022. They keep on challenging themselves with each album, but they have remained true to their art since their formation.
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Glide Magazine
Animal Collective’s latest release is a singular artistic accomplishment that needs to be heard from start to finish to process, and even then, it continues to show you something new every time you give it another spin. Its obvious replay value hints at the kind of staying power required of truly great albums and while it’s unlikely to dethrone Merriweather Post Pavilion’s status as their greatest album, it is without question the elite artistic accomplishment the world has been waiting for in a spiritual successor.
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Our Culture
Time Skiffs is a fascinating evolution of a band that always moves forward, no matter how uncertain the future becomes.
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