The Animal Spirits

AlbumNov 03 / 20179 songs, 48m 42s
Popular Highly Rated
7.4 / 10

Electronic producer James Holden has remade himself into a bandleader on his new album—a collection of self-described “folk-trance” recorded with improv ensemble the Animal Spirits.

8 / 10

Simultaneously more overtly experimental yet more easily accessible, The Animal Spirits is a triumph that makes rigidly electronic textures seem so last year.

Overall, The Animal Spirits feels very organic, brought about by the spontaneity of the performances, the brief window of time in which it was recorded, and Holden's own evolutionary arc.

James Holden returns with a new band – The Animal Spirits – and a complex, beautiful and immersive masterpiece of an album.

8 / 10

When James Holden released his superb 2013 LP The Inheritors, critics likened his synthetic psychedelia to first-wave electronic experimente...

(Border Community)

9 / 10

James Holden's mesmerising third album with his newly expanded group The Spirit Animals was recorded live in single take in one room.

65 %

Proof of just how far Holden has strayed from even the loosest bonds of club music.