Post Animal
Iron
SELF-RELEASED
Somewhere between Pink Floyd and Tame Impala, psychedelic rock got brushed from its progressive origins into the realm of warped, neo-electronic pop music. Removing itself from the genre’s recent experimental epilogue, though, Chicago-born five piece Post Animal taps back into an elemental strut with their rustic fourth studio release, Iron, an album that boasts a selection of 10 tracks that each fold narrative, pastoral folk dissonance into the framework of refined prog-rock to create a poignant portrait of both the genre and the band’s search for reclamation.
Post Animal adds to the psych-rock tradition a sense of closeness that can be felt throughout the record. Each song flickers between alternating lead vocals and barreling tempo changes while rarely hinting at the tenseness of full weeks spent in a room trying not to damage any lyric pages or pause any trains of thought. There’s hesitation in the track list, but it wields a sense of trust that’s remarkable to see executed among six members. Embracing their synchronicity, original member Joe Keery returns after nearly a decade to aid the band’s resolute jangle-rock sound. Contrasting the harsher, zig-zagging footprint of the band’s 2018 debut When I Think of You in a Castle, each tonal shift and unpredictable chord change within Iron hides underneath a deep sense of sincere commitment that the band seems only now to fully step into.
Iron explores the blossoming relationships between its creators as much as it explores the humidity of Indiana’s flat woodlands. All six members fled to a small A-frame in the nearby state for a few weeks of recording—an intensive tradition that dates back to the band’s first cabin session in Michigan for their debut, if not also some 50 years with ’70s folk-rock records like Neil Young’s Harvest in mind. At a time when Post Animal was sinking underneath burnout, Keery revitalized the project’s spirit and helped embody a renewed connection between the band and their craft. His appearance helped their return to the wilderness result in the unbridled connection they were looking for, yet the album itself leaves a sense of genuine yearning coupled with bittersweet nostalgia.
The album’s prominent synthy tones and overflowing merriness seem to separate from the story it tells, away from any leftover jagged edges left by Keery’s initial departure. Leaving a sense of enlightenment splintered by growth, there’s a certain sorrow in Post Animal’s new outlook, where it seems as though they’re looking back at where they started from the perspective of the heights they’ve since achieved. Yet Iron’s penultimate track “Common Denominator” shakes out the loss with a tender lesson in acceptance: “Just two cuts from different sides of the bar / That’s just what we are.” Years out from their initial separation with Keery, the band sounds like they’re back on track, with nothing but an open field in front of them to run through.
