Broken Hallelujah

Animal Collective's forthcoming Prospect Hummer EP (also on Fat Cat, and already cruising file-sharing networks more than a month before its official May 16 release) refines and looks back at their many sounds. It’s a good entry point into their catalogue. And there’s a very special guest: Vashti Bunyan, the late-’60s British songstress whose recently rediscovered work has become a touchstone for folk artists who’ve arrived in the last two years. Bunyan disappeared onto the moors after her 1970 utopian-Britfolk debut, Just a Diamond Day, tanked on arrival. In 2003, she reappeared for "just this one time" collaborations with Piano Magic and Devendra Banhart. Animal Collective collaborating with Bunyan has been compared to Radiohead collaborating with Pink Floyd, but I'll reserve judgement until I've heard more.