Bees

I was surprised this song wasn't added earlier to the list. I think it is probably an underrated track from Feels. This conveys a wide-eyed wonderment at a simple creature: the bee. In the mind of a child it inspires feelings of fear and violence (those stings hurt!). The repeated mantra "I take my time/you take your time" is probably just as simple as it sounds. The bees, while being scary, remind this child/man to live in nature at a slowed tempo, not to rush about in the hustle and bustle of society. It is a general statement of simply feeling at rest.

me and my boyfriend dropped acid recently and the day after it still was in his system and he decided that Bees was a song he had never understood or gave time to understand. Once he started listening to it he told me it was obvious that the song was about love, how it swarms like the bees.

I can imagine a drunken Winnie the Pooh singing this

This whole album is fantastic; it tells a love story, and the songs are perfectly arranged for that. "Did You See The Words" is the first feelings of affection; "Grass" is first sexual/emotional contact with the person loved; "Flesh Canoe" seems to be telling events of a personal relationship and the writer getting closer to his loved one; "Purple Bottle" is just a giant expression of how much the writer loves her; and now "Bees" is when the album takes a turn for the worse.

Bees is a wonderful song, one of my favorites off the album, so don't think 'turn for the worse' means 'this album starts to get bad' because every song on this album is perfect. But a turn for the worse as in the personal relationship with the writers loved one starts to diminish or become more complicated. The bees and their actions representing the love.

"So sudden, the bees, they came flying. So violent, the bees, they came sly So scary, the bees, they came wide. So wild, the bees,they came crying" This whole stanza is pretty much the song and its meaning- the Bees symbolizing the actual love. "The love was scary...the love was wild...etc." This part of the song is saying 'things are falling apart between us' and Avey is really wise to use Bees for this.

After this song, the album rolls into Banshee Beat, which describes not the break up, but the feelings of the break up, which gives evidence that this song is about the falling apart of love. I don't know- this is my interpretation. The song's meaning is ruined if it only has one specific meaning, so I'm not saying this is it; make your own interpretation. That's the best thing about Animal Collective and its members; they all have multiple meanings to each of their songs.

the bees the bees the bees the bees the bees the bees reerurureerruuuuurrr.

That's what this song means to me.

Hahhh a drunken winnie the pooh. Too good.

I love the dreamy tempo of this song

couldBanyone, u have shone a light on my previous darkness as to wtf this song was on. thanks bra.

whj247, no problem. That is what this site is designed for. Enjoy the Collective :)

hahaha. bees indeed. slow down all of us slow reerurueerurrrr...

on of my most favorite songs, some how i always attract these creatures(the bees).Possibly in this song the bees "think", their taking their time but from our perspective they move *violently,so sudden- so scary,so wild -yet so articulate.