Since the start of their rise to the top of the art-rock
underground, the beatific chums in Animal Collective have warbled, wheezed,
whinged, and wowed—all in alternating currents that make each album and
EP sound like a relic from an age they've already consigned to the past. It's
made for an admirable custom of closing the book to start the binding on a new
one, but Water Curses suggests a better
practice by working as both a summation and a start. The four-track EP hints
back at last year's Strawberry Jam,
but the songs are more melodic and spacious—more patient in making way
for whatever drifts in. The calypso-tinged title track finds Avey Tare singing
double-time over air-headed drums, while "Cobwebs" and "Seal Eying" rate more
as mesmeric hymns. The highlight is "Street Flash," an Avey Tare song built
around a meticulously employed sample of a scream that signals either blinding
terror or a thousand kinds of joy—or, better yet, both.