Welcome to IWouldWantSky.com. If you haven’t heard Animal Collective’s “What Would I Want? Sky” then you may be totally befuddled by the name of this site. Continue reading for enlightenment.
Animal Collective’s Fall Be Kind EP (made up of 5 tracks, including “What Would I Want Sky”) was released November 2009–coincidentally the same year they released their legendary Meriwether Post Pavillion LP, but that’s another story altogether.
The band is known for it’s eccentricity, and the EP was experimental even for them. ”What Would I Want? Sky” was leaked before the official release, and it became widely known as a standout track (although every song was a masterpiece.) The song can only be described as some twisted indie version of pop, and it soaks into your brain, tickling every little neuron. The verses should sound hectic with as many as three totally different vocal parts all dancing their way down the beat together, but somehow, with Avey Tare singing, everything sounds under control, calm, unhurried. You may hate it the first time you listen; you may hate it the first hundred times, but for Animal Collective lovers, every listen is a surreal glimpse of “Sky.”
If you are still confused by any of this, listen to the song and read the lyrics below. The words of Animal Collective songs take some the most complex aspects of life, and simplify them through analogies and lyrical playfulness.
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Sky
What would I want? Sky
Is everything alright?
You feeling moldy?
You feeling lonely?
You’re not the only
Is everything alright?
You feeling stormy?
You feeling phony?
You’re not the only
Do you get up up up?
Clouds stop and move above me
Too bad they can’t help me
What is the right way?
Do I float up up up?
When I stop and look around me,
Gray’s where that color should be,
What is the right way?
Old glasses clinking and a new order’s blinking
And I, I should be floating but I’m weighted by thinking
That I got on the river,
Really can’t make it change,
When the sky gets filled up too fast
And the taxi man’s saying, “You better
Give him some money,
Stop daydreaming, dude!”
When the point of horizon is hiding from you,
What would you want, sky?
What would I want? Sky
Is everything alright?
You feeling lonely?
You feeling moldy?
You’re not the only
Is everything alright?
You feeling stormy?
You feeling phony?
You’re not the only
(Are you taking it lightly?
Lost in the flurry
You start to worry
You will be buried
Taking it lightly
And so you hurry
And then you worry
Here come those flurries)
Old glasses clinking and a new order’s blinking
And I, I should be floating but I’m weighted by thinking
I’m a fly on the river,
Gotta make me some change,
When the svgky gets filled up too fast
And the taxi cab’s waiting, you better
Give him some money,
Stop daydreaming, dude,
When the point of horizon is hiding its blues
What would you want, sky?
What would I want? Sky