I was quite late in getting into Animal Collective. The reasons were more financial than anything else. It took me this album to finally cave in and start buying their releases. Watching James Cameron Mitchell's Shortbus with AC's music regularly popping up during the more, um.. daring scenes also prepped me to finally get my feet wet. I'm not sure what it is about Sung Tongs that makes me prefer it above the band's other works. It's not as experimental as their earlier efforts which are renowned to be much noisier and it's not exactly your regular, run-of-the-mill alternative band. There's a certain balance on the album and a great flow between songs which really pushes the group's aural eccentricities to the front. Sung Tongs is a singularly strong effort so to pick highlights is a difficult task but favorites of mine include: Leaf House, Who Could Win A Rabbit, Winters Love and Kids On Holiday. This is easily one of the strangest pop records of all time.