To prep for the making of their new album, Animal Collective holed up in a rented cabin just southwest of Nashville for a month-long stay back in 2019. They ended up with a dizzying amount of songs that they all agreed on — in fact, they wrote enough for at least two albums. The first, Time Skiffs, was released in 2022, and they waited for just the right time to unleash Isn’t It Now?, which dropped on Domino a few weeks ago.

Clocking in at 64 minutes, the album is their longest yet, a place where they could sonically stretch out and spread out into their own. Two decades and 12 studio albums into Animal Collective’s far-out career, Isn’t It Now? is a jewel in their crown. Of the nine tracks, “Stride Rite” is an elegant standout.

Revisit Animal Collective live on MBE in 2016 , hosted by the late KCRW DJ Eric J Lawrence.