Listening to TTNG's (fka This Town Needs Guns) Animals ten years later is still as fun and vibrant as one's first listen of the English band's breakout 2008 debut album. The guitar strolls of Tim Collis and lyrics from vocalist Stuart Smith weave and knit through the complex rhythm sections provided by drummer Chris Collis. 'I was always, and unapologetically, a fan of the music we created,' Smith says reflecting back on the release. 'For me I wrote the music not only as a catharsis, but because I enjoyed listening to the end product.' Most bands will opt for a remastered album with new artwork and maybe some liner notes written from a close friend and fellow artist. The active members of TTNG wanted to do something a bit extra. In a quick, two week turnaround, the band recorded Animals Acoustic, which also features more than liner notes, but musical contributions from the band's friends and contemporaries. Nate Kinsella (Birthmark, American Football, Make Believe) recorded string arrangements found throughout the new release.
The Kraken Quartet are featured on some of the band's fan favorites: Chinchilla , Baboon and Gibbon . Yvette Young of Covet turns Crocodile into a delicate piano ballad. The Mivos Quartet, Vicky Tremain and Andy Hume contribute even more depth to an album of reassembled songs. Badger is one of the more stellar revisions of Animals Acoustic. The original galloped in stride between the Collis brothers' guitar and drumming. Its Acoustic counterpart is the background of walking through a refined art exhibit, as The Mivos Quartet add a string arrangement that changes the tempo while still building beautiful nuance that compliments the song's original form. The Mivos Quartet also turns Dog into a complete symphonic performance. The quick guitar licks of the original are replaced with vibrant string arrangements, leaving the guitar parts more a passenger there for fan reference. Fans will still recognize a lot of Animals key moments within its acoustic rework.
The opening guitar start and stop of Gibbon is present on its adaptation, but the moments of urgency within the song are at times quelled by slowed tempos and a stripping of instruments that leave space between the margins. The later accompaniment of bells and xylophone from The Kraken Quartet add new timbre to a fan favorite, as they do in the latter parts of Chinchilla . 'Seeing as the songs were never written to be played acoustically, I'm very happy with how this came out,' says Chris Collis, 'I think [these versions still] work as songs this way, and it s nice to have different versions of the originals out in the world.' Animals Acoustic isn't a simple rebuild that one would normally expect to hear when anticipating an acoustic album. Like the referenced album's cover, there are multiple color palettes present to create an overall picture that feels less two dimensional and more of a colorful celebration of the layers of music within.
