Painting With is the tenth studio album by American experimental pop band Animal Collective, released on February 19, 2016.
For Painting With, the band's line-up consists of Avey Tare (David Portner), Panda Bear (Noah Lennox), and Geologist (Brian Weitz), the same trio which participated for Merriweather Post Pavilion (2009).
[4] Deakin (Josh Dibb), who had regrouped into the collective in November 2010 for Centipede Hz, and toured with them from 2011 to 2013, is absent opting to focus on finishing his solo debut Sleep Cycle (2016).
[4] In early 2015, Lennox confirmed that the band would be returning to the studio to record a new album, while Portner intimated in April: "Yeah, over the past few months I've been writing some songs.
"[11] The album's color palette is dominated by modular synthesizers and an array of percussion instruments borrowed from the collection of studio drummer Emil Richards.
"[4] Lennox elaborated with a comparison to the first Ramones album: There was this idea of wanting to do something with short songs, with a homogenous energy to the record.
[13] The group drew on ideas of the prehistoric, such as cave paintings and dinosaurs, which were used to influence the songwriting process and the recording sessions themselves, "[aiming to eschew] slow jams for a set of songs inspired by more elemental pleasures ... [and] artists who could make a lot happen in a short amount of time," writes Jeremy Gordon.
Using Sony's Music Track ID system, it was discovered that the airport recordings belonged to an unreleased 12-track Animal Collective album entitled Painting With.
A representative of the band responded with "no comment today",[15] while Portner confirmed that "FloriDada", the impending single from the album, would be released on November 30.
Upon pre-ordering the vinyl, users received an immediate download of "FloriDada" as well as an eventual 7" containing two new tracks "Gnip Gnop" and "Hounds of Bairro".
"[28] Jamie Atkins of Record Collector compared the album's sound to the soundtrack of the 1992 video game Sonic the Hedgehog 2, "the band sounding like a motley crew of Deadheads and club kids stuck between the Mystic Cave and Oil Ocean zones, in constant fear of Dr Robotnik's frankly unreasonable temper and whichever drill or submarine he might pilot next."
"[30] Mike Powell of Pitchfork Media added, "Painting With feels, more than anything, like a kind of construction project: Each sound meticulously built and only faintly familiar, each second crammed with doodads, as though the band was worried either they or their audience might get bored.
"[25] In a negative review, Lee Arizuno of The Quietus called the album "absolute dogshit from start to finish", repeatedly describing each song as "a sing-song number with faux–naïf lyrics ... and EDM belches".