K first, I completely see where you're coming from; I used to be a huge Animal Collective hater and just figured them for some pretentious, post modern atmospheric bullshit slingers. What makes them such an amazing band, to me, is that you can't pin down any single thing that makes them great. Now, I'm going to preface this by acknowledging that I am about to sound like a seriously pretentious bullshit slinger here but bear with me.
All of their songs vary so drastically from one another, but almost all of them is genius in its own way (don't get me wrong, there are some AC songs that I'm not into…mostly the purely atmospheric ones). At their core, they are fucking amazing songwriters that construct incredibly complex music whose success can hinge on a perfectly timed key change (Bluish is a great example of this), a cacophony of perfectly layered and inventive samples (
Lion in a Coma), a pan flute solo out of nowhere (
Graze), or an epic, epic build up and climax (
In The Flowers) (for the record this is my #1 most epic song of all time, and is the closest I've come to getting the euphoria of "tripping" by listening to music). They might not grab you immediately, but after a few listens and you hear the whole songs within their own context, they make sense and they're effing brilliant.
They are the perfect mix of beautiful songwriting and manic, completely unheard of production techniques. When I first heard Animal Collective, all I heard was the crazy experimental sounds, and couldn't hear the amazing songwriting.
Peacebone is a perfect example of this…It sounds at first like a muddled mix of clashing sounds, but when you play it on an acoustic guitar (It's really just E to A and back to E, then E to B and back) and sing along, it really is a beautiful song. Then when you add in the sound effects, it takes it to an entirely new level.
Top all of this off by the fact that every album is strong and unique, with barely any throwaway tracks (except for on the EPs, imo) along with their unbelievable progression since their beginning: just listen to how different
Leaf House sounds from
Daily Routine - yet each maintains that familiarity that frlzr was talking about
IN CONCLUSION, they create a style thats totally unique to them without compromising the things that make music great. Combined with what Faze Laker was saying, that is why they are probably my favorite band of all time.