VIA PRESS RELEASE | “Perhaps more than any other record of the decade, [Sung Tongs] foresaw where indie hearts, ears, and minds would go in the next five years… the magic of this record was that it was both innovative and utterly, peerlessly beautiful.” —Pitchfork
Animal Collective will release a Canary Yellow and Ruby Red colored 2xLP vinyl repress of their beloved fifth studio LP, 2004’s Sung Tongs, in honor of the album’s 20 year anniversary. The new edition marks the first time the album has been available on color vinyl. Also available digitally and on color vinyl will be the new live album Sung Tongs Live at the Theatre at Ace Hotel, a recording of the 2018 concert in Los Angeles where Avey Tare and Panda Bear performed the album in full. All formats will be out October 4 via Domino.
Sung Tongs marked the beginning of a prolific five-year period in which Animal Collective went on to release their game-changing albums Feels (2005), Strawberry Jam (2007), and Merriweather Post Pavilion (2009). At the time of Sung Tongs’ release, Rolling Stone called it “one of the more creative and accomplished records you’ll hear this year,” adding, “Their songs cackle with soulful eccentricity while dazzling you with deceptive chops and improvised manipulations.”
Pitchfork later named it one of the best albums of the 2000s, raving, “Sung Tongs is an emotionally thrilling record, impossibly giddy and fully-charged with big, raucous enthusiasm: Acoustic strums and wild, flailing voices (including some mind-blowing harmonies by vocalists Avey Tare and Panda Bear) coalesce into something sublimely weird and undeniably beautiful.”
Even today, writers continue to unpack the album’s significance. As Stereogum puts it on the album’s 20th anniversary: “[Sung Tongs] marks the turning point at which Animal Collective transitioned from being radical experimentalists to hypnagogic ponderers… [helping] thrust Animal Collective out of DIY spaces and onto the main stage.” And for two decades, said hypnagogic pop has taken them everywhere from the Coachella mainstage to Crayola commercials.
Sung Tongs is available to pre-order on Canary Yellow & Ruby Red color 2xLP vinyl now. Sung Tongs Live at the Theatre at Ace Hotel is available to pre-order on Neon Orange & Light Green color vinyl, and digitally. Both releases are available as a 4xLP bundle.
