- Archive Panic: As of 2023, in only 23 years of existence, the group had already released 12 studio albums, 12 EPs, 19 singles (often with exclusive B-sides), 6 live albums composed mostly of original material, and the visual albums ODDSAC and Tangerine Reef. And that's not even counting all of the member's side projects, live songs that never made it on an album or compilation, and collaborations with other artists. And to add to the confusion, absolutely none of their albums sound even remotely the same.
- Broken Base: Danse Manatee, their second album and first with Geologist, is either their worst album due to it's more abrasive and experimental sound note or an unfairly maligned gem reminiscent of classic Krautrock.
- Colbert Bump: Fans of The Slender Man Mythos quickly gravitated towards this band after Everyman HYBRID used both "Who Could Win A Rabbit" and "Did You See the Words" throughout the course of the series. The series also referenced many other Animal Collective songs in other formats, such as having a character named "Reverend Green" in Doctor Corenthal's letters, and the Can You See the Words blog (whose title is a variation of "Did You See the Words") having the lyrics for "Peacebone" in one post.
- On the flipside, the band helped to give one to 70's singer songwriter Vashti Bunyan after collaborating on the Prospect Hummer EP. (While she had already been receiving a critical renaissance around that point, collaborating with the band was what truly revitalized her career)
- Heartwarming Moments: "#1" and "Derek", songs sung by Avey and Panda to their respective children.
- Now, if you never heard "Brother Sport" but heard that it was Panda Bear telling his brother to open up to him about problems in their family, you'd assume it was sad or angry. It's not: it's the most infectious, happiest song on an album that's already filled with infectious, happy songs, and it's genuinely sweet hearing Panda give his little brother a pep talk.
- "Wide Eyed", Deakin's first time singing, is from the point of view of a man whose wife is pregnant. While it starts with him feeling anxious about fatherhood, beats himself up for not being able to help his wife through this difficult time, and wondering if he'll mess his kids up...it ends with him finally accepting that he and his wife have grown and changed for the better as people because of this, and ends with him letting go and crying at the birth of his kid
Even as water's crushing over my head
And the rhythm that I would slow is picking up it's pace
I'm learning from older shames as I'm watching them die
And I'm still hoping to see her smile in the morning when we wake
- Ho Yay: Avey once made a tongue-in-cheek claim that the track "Flesh Canoe" (which contains lines like "Are there more important things to do then kiss or sleep today?" and "I'm just wondering what to do with you myself and me naked in the mirror of the bathroom") was about his "relationship with [Panda Bear] at a certain time."
- Hype Aversion: As can be expected with every artist Pitchfork loves.
- Memetic Badass: Deakin, who since his return, is often joked to be the true leader, genius and face of the band despite his very infrequent appearances with the band. Justified to many fans when his debut solo album was finally released after years of anticipation to considerable acclaim.
- Memetic Mutation: From the closed captions of a performance of "#1" on Late Night with Conan O'Brien: [woman vocalizing] [man speaking backwards]
. note - 7.4/"Like a burrito thrown at your windshield" note
- Bonefish.note
- The cover to Merriwether Post Pavillion is just as iconic to /mu/ as the one to In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. To the point where if you go on the board, this image that combines the two◊ (and the one for No Love Deep Web) is the first thing you see.
- Song Association: As mentioned above in Colbert Bump, four of Animal Collective's songs, "Did You See the Words", "For Reverend Green", "Peacebone", and especially "Who Could Win a Rabbit" were used and/or referenced at least once in the popular Slender Man webseries Everyman HYBRID. The fact that the main villain of the series calls himself HABIT and calls his followers "rabbits" is just icing on the cake.
- Squick: Some of their lyrics can fall into this, albeit in a good-natured way.
- Sweet Dreams Fuel: "Loch Raven."
- Tear Jerker: Fucking DOGGY. Don't look up the lyrics if you're planning on having a nice day. Just don't.
- The entire second half of Feels, particularly "Banshee Beat".
- They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: This kind of reaction has existed since the beginning of the band, due to their tendency to switch to a completely different sound with every album. Centipede Hz in particular gets more notable backlash because it came right after their most commercially successful album - which some considered too poppy compared to the earlier stuff.
- Vindicated by History: With that said, Centipede Hz has actually aged very well. Contemporary reviews (such as Pitchfork's infamous "like a burrito thrown at your windshield" review) knocked it as overstuffed and overproduced, and it was seen as a let down compared to the much more polished Merriwether Post Pavillion. But it provided a blueprint for later albums that would refine the noisy "alien pop" sound, and it was the first time Deakin sang on his own. Not only that, in a lot of ways it sounds more like a contemporary Hyperpop album than anything that was out in 2012, so it seems less like an outlier today.
