Animal Collective’s latest project, ODDSAC, is an intensely psychedelic visual album that spans the various sounds the group has played around with over the years. It’s not exactly what you would expect after listening to 2009’s blissful Merriweather Post Pavillion.

The ever-shifting and mood-altering tunes match the visuals perfectly. There are highly disturbing images, like a vampiric figure floating in a canoe that creeps up on children making s’mores, a woman peeling back yellow wallpaper as oil spills from behind it, a knight hand-washing brains on a riverbank and a crazed fish-like man playing autoharp in front of swirling, spinning flames. But the scary images are paired with humorous, euphoric and childish scenes. If you’re a fan of AC’s earlier, more abrasive albums like Here Comes The Indian, you’ll enjoy the avant-garde soundscapes and disorienting imagery.

The music is a strange blend of droning tribal-pop with plenty of acoustic and electronic instrumentation. There are individual tracks, but it’s often hard to tell when one ends and the next begins. One minute you’ll hear brain-frying, looped computer noise while staring at melting, visualized sound waves, and then you’ll see an anonymous longhaired albino grunge freak setting up a drum kit on a sea of rocks in a gorgeous Pacific Northwest landscape.

The songs are entrancing to say the least, and recall the repetitive, noisy pop of Feels and Strawberry Jam, along with the acoustic/electronic clashing dissonance of Spirit They’re Gone…, Danse Manatee and Sung Tongs.

ODDSAC is a breath of fresh air, and it’s encouraging to see a band step out of its realm and experiment with a seemingly forgotten art form.