Tangerine Reef is an audiovisual album by Animal Collective in collaboration with Coral Morphologic, an art-science duo and self-professed “pioneers of avant-garde coral macro-videography”. The project commemorates the 2018 International Year of the Reef. On this offering, Animal Collective (here consisting of Avey Tare, Deakin, and Geologist — Panda Bear did not contribute) create languid, organic sound assemblages that remind of past works Meeting of the Waters (2017), Transverse Temporal Gyrus EP (2012), and ODDSAC (2010). I also hear a direct ancestral tie to Avey's 2017 solo album Eucalyptus, which is one of my favorite albums in the Animal Collective family tree.

These compositions provide the ideal audio accompaniment to a visual project of oceanic themes because they themselves resemble water. Tracks flow in and out of one another. Errant sounds surface and then quickly fall away. Avey's voice often sounds submerged, as if seeking you out from some murky depth. Like many AC efforts of the last decade, Tangerine Reef is heavy on electronics, synths, and vocal treatments, but here those, too, sound aquatic.

Having listened intently to Animal Collective's kaleidoscopic, genre-defying output for nearly 20 years, I'm left with an impression that they could never create something other than a true expression. Theirs is a distinct sound, unapologetically original, and Tangerine Reef is another compelling example of the band's unique fingerprint. Simultaneously haunting, ethereal, urgent, and beautiful, it's as strange and endearing a record as any Animal Collective have made to date, and it's my favorite album of the year.