FloriDada

The *Painting With* opener is Animal Collective at their most deliberately unhinged and playful, a sugar-rush of stacked vocals and skittering rhythms that sounds like a children's choir got into something they shouldn't have. Avey Tare and Panda Bear trade syllabic nonsense and real words at a pace that resists parsing, the point being immersion rather than comprehension. The production is bright and compressed, nearly overwhelming in its density, but there's genuine craft in how the layers of melody and percussion interlock. Lyrically it gestures toward Florida's surreal geography and the absurdity of American leisure culture, but mostly it celebrates pure sonic mess. It's a reaction against the warm lushness of *Merriweather*, deliberately abrasive in its enthusiasm. Best heard loud in a car with the windows down, or at a party where nobody is trying to be cool anymore.