Animal Collective - "Campfire Songs"

In 2003, Animal Collective were not the genial cohort they are today. They were more of a primordial soup of acoustic instrumentation and natural effects than they were a band that produced actual music. Attempting to find a bridge between their earlier work and Merriweather Post Pavilion is a futile exercise, one that ends in frustration (especially, I imagine, for those who began with MMP and worked backwards; this is, unfortunately, most people who like Animal Collective). Even finding the links to 2004s Sung Tongs--which probably comes closest to Campfire Songs in terms of phylum or species branching--requires a stretch of patience and open-mindedness that few could be prepared to take on. But with a meteoric rise to popularity comes a meteoric rise to re-issue and display roots, which is what makes Campfire Songs so interesting at this point in time. No one could hope to understand it or where it came from, but suddenly it's here, a brooding and thought-provoking mess. And everyone is compelled to listen.