Animal Collective - Isn't It Now?At this point, it is almost impossible to say what makes for a classic Animal Collective album; the standard fluctuates with the weather, your temperament, whatever chemicals may or may not waft through your mind. But from start to finish, first listen to last, Isn't It Now? absolutely lands as a classic, it's mix of playfulness and earnestness, glittery pop and tessellated textures seeming to synthesize and update all that has ever made and still

It's a vision of industrial music as enigma and invocation

as well as a sure feel for instrumental writing

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It's popularity is justified by the poignant beauty of every single musical phrase

and again bar after bar

we usually think of composition as a classical idea

It was recorded in Los Angeles and Munich with production by Jack White and Robbie Buchanan

Made during the height of the California wildfires (where Danny now resides)

Laquita Mitchell and Jay O

directly following the other

This is their debut album

writing and performing the closing track "Exile"