Animal Collective - Fall Be Kind

Animal Collective are outstandingly prolific. So reason suggests that after ten years of activity, they have to put out the inevitable clunker, right? Wrong. Bookending their incredible year is the EP Fall Be Kind, and it's the best kind of album bedfellow: leftovers made to sound cohesive by virtue of their creator's natural gift for evoking a certain time, place or theme.

After the blistering summer's day experienced on Merriweather Post Pavilion, the melancholy underwater comedown of Bleed and On A Highway is like the evening spent round the pool. This vibe is strongest on the seven minute stoned 'n' happy jam What Would I Want? Sky, which revolves around a trademark Panda Bear appropriation of a Grateful Dead sample.

This technicolor dreamcoat feels like an instant classic in a career full of high watermarks - living proof that, far from having tapped themselves dry, Animal Collective's wellspring is producing stronger than ever. [Ian Crichton]