Flesh Canoe

Strawberry Jam is Animal Collective at their most aggressive — louder, more distorted, and more confrontational than the pastoral beauty of Sung Tongs or the ambient shimmer of Feels. Released in 2007, it represented a deliberate departure that divided fans.

Flesh Canoe is one of the album's most intense tracks: Avey Tare's voice pushed to its limits, the production a dense wall of sound processing voice and guitar into something approaching noise. The song is ecstatic in the way that some extreme music is — not calm, but fully present.

Animal Collective's subsequent Merriweather Post Pavilion (2009) became their breakthrough. Strawberry Jam is the more challenging album that made that breakthrough possible.