Painting With
by Animal Collective
  • Record Label: Domino
  • Release Date: Feb 19, 2016
User Score
7.5

Generally favorable reviews- based on 103 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 79 out of 103
  2. Mixed: 17 out of 103
  3. Negative: 7 out of 103
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  1. Custom_Concerns
    Feb 20, 2016
    3
    Alright, fine. Painting With is "dense." It's got a lot of synths buzzing and glooping and...whatever else they're doing in the background. But dense production does not necessarily mean the music is complex, original, challenging, or interesting whatsoever. On AnCo's latest record, it only serves to muddle the already repetitive and boring melodies that plague the listener withAlright, fine. Painting With is "dense." It's got a lot of synths buzzing and glooping and...whatever else they're doing in the background. But dense production does not necessarily mean the music is complex, original, challenging, or interesting whatsoever. On AnCo's latest record, it only serves to muddle the already repetitive and boring melodies that plague the listener with extraordinary levels of pure, undiluted boredom.

    Each of these tracks on their own are not terrible, some are quite good. FloriDaDa and Golden Gal bookend the record (closely enough) with less purposefully overwhelming, more straightforward 60's pop flavored melodies that work well. Other tracks, like Hocus Pocus, aren't spectacular, but do not result in my wanting to commit suicide. In the context of the album, however, the flaws that pervade each of these tracks are made significantly more detrimental. The result is an album that gets worse the more you listen to it.

    I could talk about how the vocals (presentation AND performance) are abysmal and how every track follows the same structure and how the songwriting feels unfinished and how the production exudes this pretentious fake "complexity"...instead I will end by saying I simply do not get the appeal of this record. If you enjoy it, by all means keep doing so, but aside from a choice few tracks, there is little to nothing here that I find remotely enjoyable.    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

55
#55 Most Discussed Album of 2016
66
#66 Most Shared Album of 2016

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
69

Generally favorable reviews - based on 36 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 19 out of 36
  2. Mixed: 16 out of 36
  3. Negative: 1 out of 36
  1. Austin Chronicle
    Apr 28, 2016
    50
    Full of punch, the album still never quite reaches its destination.
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  2. Under The Radar
    Mar 31, 2016
    30
    Painting With is by a distance the most annoying album you'll hear this year, and not just because it sounds exactly how those people imagine the band always has.
    Read full review
  3. Dusted Magazine
    Mar 2, 2016
    60
    The confident, relaxed, but still concise and appealing “Vertical” indicates that Animal Collective still have some life in them, and as much as some of Painting With can tend to grate, it’s still an improvement from the band’s last two albums; trying to write pop songs instead of dance records or noise jams suits them in their middle age.
    Read full review
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