Highest Recent Ratings

Albums to watch

Centipede HZ

Animal Collective

Centipede HZ

The influential experimental psychedelic band follow up the hugely-acclaimed Merriweather Post Pavilion with their 9th studio album, featuring the return of guitarist Deakin

ADM rating[?]

7.5

Label
Domino
UK Release date
03/09/2012
US Release date
04/09/2012
Listen on Spotify
Related Links
Last.fm Myspace Wikipedia
Share
Share |

  1. 9.1 |   Beats Per Minute

    Guitars and bleepy sounds chirp and swirl while Avey sings about stories, fantasies, and imagination
    Read Review

  2. 9.1 |   Pretty Much Amazing

    Centipede Hz was bound to dissatisfy. After you’re done qualifying Centipede Hz, you’re still left with a terrific, jubilant, life-affirming album. In other words, an Animal Collective album. Most bands would kill to disappoint this well
    Read Review

  3. 9.0 |   Sputnik Music (staff)

    Animal Collective feels like an art tribe, widening in its scope and loosening band
    Read Review

  4. 9.0 |   God Is In The TV

    On Centipede Hz they have actually hitched right round the galaxy of further sonic exploration and taken us with them on one absolutely glorious interstellar ride
    Read Review

  5. 9.0 |   The Line Of Best Fit

    It might take some time for many to consider it their favourite Animal Collective album. But that day will arrive, and those who come to love it will do so as passionately as they have any of their previous works
    Read Review

  6. 9.0 |   Clash

    Inspired by how an extraterrestrial band could sound in a bar on another planet, they’ve created something that’s out of this world
    Read Review

  7. 8.5 |   BBC

    Submit fully to Centipede Hz and it will infect you, quite deliciously, for the foreseeable
    Read Review

  8. 8.5 |   Under The Radar

    A magical album that takes the listener on a wondrous journey into a party where love is found, lost, and ultimately sublimated into an unsurpassable catharsis
    Read Review

  9. 8.0 |   Mojo

    Another delirious and ecstatic step forward. Print edition only

  10. 8.0 |   Spin

    This one is more private, concerned with the effect music makes on the individual, embedding its lyrics deeper into the mix, rewarding the type of close listening you only can do alone
    Read Review

  11. 8.0 |   Tone Deaf

    The constantly astonishing thing is that they Animal Collective can still create sing-a-long moments, they may be few and far between, but for music that can be confronting it makes it that bit more accessible
    Read Review

  12. 8.0 |   DIY

    No other band around would be capable of creating such experimental, psychedelic, mad, and oddly, very listenable pop music
    Read Review

  13. 8.0 |   No Ripcord

    Centipede Hz could have been something truly special, but as it stands, it’s a portrait of growing up that is wonderfully vivid but a tad unfulfilling
    Read Review

  14. 8.0 |   PopMatters

    All in all, Centipede Hz is an album that’ll get a hold on you as all its arms grab on and don’t let go
    Read Review

  15. 8.0 |   Q

    Given time, its melodies begin to seep out, revealing themselves to be ornate and pretty and maddeningly catchy. Print edition only

  16. 8.0 |   The Irish Times

    Sonically complex and a creative leap forward, this is a big, bruiser of an album – and one of the best you’ll hear all year
    Read Review

  17. 8.0 |   NME

    It will frustrate as much as it delights. And no, not everything they through at the wall sticks. By my, what a lovely mess they've made
    Read Review

  18. 8.0 |   Consequence Of Sound

    Explores its own labyrinthine interior rather than take advantage of the intense anticipation generated by Merriweather’s newly massive, crossover footprint
    Read Review

  19. 8.0 |   Evening Standard

    Their most cohesive work to date
    Read Review

  20. 8.0 |   Independent on Sunday

    Simultaneously the most and the least pop record of the autumn
    Read Review

  21. 7.5 |   Bowlegs

    Few bands sound so simultaneously complex yet direct, like a tangled ball of thread you learned to live with instead of were irritated by
    Read Review

  22. 7.4 |   Pitchfork

    A cluttered, abrasive album that confirms their naysayers' exaggerated perceptions of the band. But even a patchy Animal Collective album yields several exceptional songs
    Read Review

  23. 7.0 |   Rolling Stone

    A touch more earthbound than we've come to expect from them – a return to what the band calls its garage-rock "roots"
    Read Review

  24. 7.0 |   Uncut

    Unlikely to elicit the broad appeal that was granted Merriweather. Centepede Hz is an album that both gazes up into the cosmos, and stares down into the dirt
    Read Review

  25. 7.0 |   Drowned In Sound

    It’s jolly and kinetic and greater than the sum of its songs
    Read Review

  26. 6.0 |   The Observer

    Probably brings AnCo another molecule's width closer to the mainstream; retaining all the dislocation and unevenness that their fans treasure but remapping it on to more recognisable instruments
    Read Review

  27. 6.0 |   The Skinny

    While far from a failure, Centipede Hz still feels awfully like a diluted facsimile of its two predecessors. We’ve come to expect more from the real thing
    Read Review

  28. 6.0 |   Paste Magazine

    Centipede Hz will prove a litmus test for the bubble of new fans welcomed into the fold
    Read Review

  29. 6.0 |   The Guardian

    The crossover path between experimental voyagers and indie-rock darlings is well trodden, and from Spiritualized to Mercury Rev it's studded with groups opting to refine their sound, not quest for a new one. It's to Animal Collective's credit that they haven't taken this option. Centipede Hz sets them up well for the future, without always managing to satisfy in the present
    Read Review

  30. 6.0 |   hhv.de mag

    The soundscapes of former days are now just slippery surfaces – but this time, no one’s gonna catch you. And that might just be the record’s biggest disappointment
    Read Review

  31. 5.8 |   A.V. Club

    It’s like a manic transmission that’s only being half picked up, leaving the receiver the task of attempting to reconstruct the message from incomplete information
    Read Review

  32. 5.5 |   Prefix

    Falls short of being the album it could be
    Read Review

  33. 5.0 |   musicOMH

    For large parts of this record, perhaps for the first time since the group’s inception, Animal Collective sounds like a band doing little more than going through the motions
    Read Review

  34. 5.0 |   Slant Magazine

    Centipede Hz may have a lot of interesting elements floating around, and it may be held together by the same strong songcraft that has always sustained Animal Collective, but it's all too murky and familiar, less profoundly complex than inaccessibly complicated
    Read Review

  35. Back to main chart

blog comments powered by Disqus
buy it at amazon download it from itunes

Watch it

Roll over video for more options

Hear it

Centipede Hz (2012) - Animal Collective by Brett Myers 3

Preview & download it

Animal Collective: Centipede HZ

  • Download full album for just £8.49
  • 1. Moonjock £0.89
  • 2. Today's Supernatural £0.89
  • 3. Rosie Oh £0.89
  • 4. Applesauce £0.89
  • 5. Wide Eyed £0.89
  • 6. Father Time £0.89
  • 7. New Town Burnout £0.89
  • 8. Monkey Riches £0.89
  • 9. Mercury Man £0.89
  • 10. Pulleys £0.89
  • 11. Amanita £0.89
  • Service provided by 7Digital

Latest Reviews

Fat White Family  Forgiveness Is Yours

Even when they don’t quite hit the mark, they remain a curiously compelling act who play by their own rules – chaos remains their lifeblood, for good and for bad musicOMH

Fat White Family  Forgiveness Is Yours

A certain rock'n'roll energy is lacking. Print edition only Mojo

Fat White Family  Forgiveness Is Yours

Forgiveness Is Yours sometimes becomes too diffuse, hampered by a surplus of bold ideas that do not get all the necessary follow-through. But it Abounds with queasy pleasures all the same. Print edition only Uncut

More reviews

All-time top 10

Since we've been around, that is. So, the highest-rated albums from the past twelve years or so. Rankings are calculated to two decimal places.

  1. 9.3

    Kendrick Lamar To Pimp A Butterfly

  2. 9.2

    Fiona Apple Fetch The Bolt Cutters

  3. 9.1

    Kendrick Lamar Damn.

  4. 9.1

    D'Angelo And The Vanguard Black Messiah

  5. 9.0

    Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds Ghosteen

  6. 9.0

    Self Esteem Prioritise Pleasure

  7. 8.9

    Bob Dylan Rough and Rowdy Ways

  8. 8.9

    Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds Skeleton Tree

  9. 8.9

    Frank Ocean Channel Orange

  10. 8.9

    Dave We’re All Alone In This Together

See full list