Animal Collective specialize in shape-shifting songs that seem to wrench melodies out of the ether. Their third full-length album maintains a sense of childlike joy and free-flowing exploration while creating bizarro pastoral reveries out of primitivist tom-tom beats, guitar screeches and all kinds of overlapping vocals, which provide both human-scale atmosphere and hooks. The lead single, "Grass," sounds like Brian Eno's "Another Green World" on mescaline, with a winding, beatific refrain giving way to staccato screams amid a warped country-rock bounce. At nearly seven minutes, "The Purple Bottle" finds just the right mix of whimsy and ambience, mixing cracked Modest Mouse refrains, unintelligible squeaks and gorgeous Beach Boys chorales over chiming keyboards and speedy tribal drums. A handful of cuts simply drift by unremarkably, but at its best, Feels gives hope to young bands who want to make beautiful noise but refuse to color within the lines.

“Is It True”

As the British Invasion reached its peak in 1964, Brenda Lee went from Nashville to London to record one of her hardest-rocking hits, her perky vocal backed by a stuttering, squalling guitar. That guitar was played by session musician Jimmy Page, yet to skyrocket to fame with first the Yardbirds and then Led Zeppelin. "She said to me, 'I've come here to make a record with the British sound,'" remembered producer Mickie Most. "She felt she wouldn't get the same sound in Nashville because they're only just catching up on the British beat group sound of about six months ago."