Plants and Animals

Outside the mainstream, you’ll notice we’re living in a golden age of musical creativity. Underground music has matured and cycled back to the freedom and demanding musicianship of the early ’70s. Plants and Animals are headed down an exhilarating progressive folk rock route that’s not dissimilar to recent efforts by Animal Collective and Devendra Banhart. Serious Beatles references in with/avec EP’s opener "Lola Who?” include a nod to the melody of "The Ballad of John and Yoko” and a Harrison-esque guitar lead, following a turn the Firey Furnaces would appreciate and preceding a surprise mini-epic of an ending. The production and harmonies recall Simon and Garfunkel’s best work while evoking Radiohead’s transfixing psychedelic shimmer. "Faerie Dance” is propelled by a bubbling urgency, reaching devastating intensity mid-song with a cutting cello line before grooving into a sing-along outro. An eight-minute Latin jam closing the EP is infinitely more exciting than anything Santana has done since Woodstock.