Animal Collective are putting out a new album called Painting With on February 19. They've already released one song, "FloriDada," and now they've got a follow-up, called "Lying in the Grass." The catch? To listen to it, you have to download their iOS app, also called Painting With, which, as the name implies, is a drawing app.The way Painting With works is: You can create custom brushes by taking pictures of stuff, or you can just draw with a color brush. You have the duration of the song your drawing or to create and scrap as many drawings as your heart desires. You can do it by yourself or collaboratively in real time. You can then export a 30-second video of your drawing process to share on social media/the AnCo website or, if you are the statement-making kind of AnCo fan, to use as a storyboard for your own version of that scene in Love Actually where the dude shows the cards professing his love to Keira Knightly. There's also some way to turn it into a strobe light for the Animal Collective custon record player slipmat, the specifics of which I can't quite visualize because I do not have said slipmat or a record player.Since there isn't, until February 1, a way to listen to the song outside of the app, I downloaded it and took it upon myself to explore in the interest of writing a review. First, I made brushes out of my nearby coworkers Eric, Craig, Dan, and Kim:Then, I decided to paint alone, partly because I couldn't convince any of my other coworkers to download the app and partly because my many friends, who, just to be clear, are myriad in number all have Android phones probably and even though I, once again, have lots of friends, it made sense to paint alone:As for my impression of "Lying in the Grass"? It's great background music for an iPhone painting app. It has a squelchy bassline that sounds like a cartoon springboard bouncing around, some elusive saxophone riffs, and the type of clattering, forward-marching vocal patterns that have defined Animal Collective's offbeat pop since Sung Tongs. It's familiar but fun. Once again, great soundtrack for a painting app. But don't take my word for it when you can take my interactive drawings' word for it. I whipped up two quick reviews in the app itself, which are below. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.new AnCo app song review pt 1 pic.twitter.com/3Wm7EoqqQX— Kyle Kramer (@KyleKramer)January 28, 2016pt 2: "Solitude" pic.twitter.com/mPB886gqG2— Kyle Kramer (@KyleKramer)January 28, 2016Animal Collective also heads on a world tour starting February 19, playing dates with Ratking, GFOTY, and Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith. Check out the full tour dates and get more album information on their website.Follow Kyle Kramer on Twitter.
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