Band shares opening track “Soul Capturer” from follow-up to 2022’s Time Skiffs
Less than two years removed from their Time Skiffs, Animal Collective have announced they’ll return this September with a new album Isn’t It Now?
Ahead of the LP’s Sept. 29 release, the band has shared the new video for opening track “Soul Capturer,” the second “single” off Isn’t It Now?; the album announcement was preceded earlier this month by the epic, 22-minute centerpiece “Defeat.”
During the six-year wait that followed 2016’s absurdist Painting With, Animal Collective — Avey Tare, Panda Bear, Geologist, and Deakin — rented a cabin in rural Tennessee in 2019 to work on new music, with the band producing the bones of 20 songs.
The pandemic ultimately cut their efforts, with Animal Collective crafting 2022’s Time Skiffs by file-sharing from their respective quarantines. The remaining tracks from their cabin workshop were held until the band returned to touring, allowing them to road-test the material onstage before bringing it into the studio with producer Russell Elevado, who previously worked on albums by D’Angelo and the Roots.
“Lots of space has been traversed in order for us to offer you word of our new record release,” Animal Collective wrote on social media. “As usual words can’t describe how we feel about getting it out to you but ‘more than ecstatic’ is a good place to start.”
Isn’t It Now? — at 64 minutes, the band’s longest album to date — is available to preorder now in a variety of formats, including limited edition double vinyl. Half of Animal Collective is currently out on tour, albeit separately: Avey Tare is on the road in support of his latest solo LP 7s, while Panda Bear and longtime collaborator Sonic Boom have just concluded a North American jaunt for their 2022 LP Reset.
Isn’t It Now? Track List
1. “Soul Capturer”
2. “Genie’s Open”
3. “Broke Zodiac”
4. “Magicians From Baltimore”
5. “Defeat”
6. “Gem & I”
7. “Stride Rite”
8. “All the Clubs Are Broken”
9. “King’s Walk”