3 Umbrellas

it's not about us holding hands. i don't have to be on top of your plans, oh tucked beneath them i'm showing my teeth and i could say i love you i'm hiding beneath my dark green umbrellas.

can we talk about the funny things when we're hanging out the hairy mess leaves it's how it should be like my songs and we're all just like brothers you see me beneath my dark green umbrellas.

and we're laughing at this lover scene and we're laughing at the older brothers

i've been hiding under three umbrellas. i've been hiding under three umbrellas.

do other people like us fools? i wonder if they feel like we do we're always teasing and i can't imagine if i didn't know you i don't take for granted my three umbrellas.

and if you wanna talk and sing that it's not about us, fine with me please that's always pleasing to share with some people but they'll never know you or just how i feel about you three umbrellas.

and we're laughing at this lover scene and we're laughing at the older brothers

i've been hiding under green umbrellas. i've been hiding under green umbrellas.

it's softened my heart oh but how could you do oh think every girl knows that we're it softened my heart oh but how could you do

(^^ that part's fuzzy.)

hmm this song sticks out most after my first listening experience of "down there"

perhaps he is referring marijuana when he says green umbrella. I kind of feel like weed to me is my green umbrella that "I've been hiding under". maybe that is what he is trying to say. AC as a whole are one of my most admired group of musicians but i find so much difficulty in deciphering the meanings of their songs sometimes

i think his three umbrellas represent the three other members of animal collective, and he is telling his lover how he misses them.

Avey recently separated from his wife, and a lot of the album has to do with this. It has to do with problems in relationships. And the three umbrellas representing AC is the most logical option to me.

He doesn't say "I've been hiding under three umbrellas", he says "I've been hiding under green umbrellas".

"Three umbrellas" is used only in two spots; the first is "I don't take for granted my three umbrellas", and the second is a call-back at the end of the next verse.

And I strongly suspect it "three umbrellas" alludes to how 1 + 1 = 3 ifyouknowhatimean. Father, mother, child each standing in the rain has an umbrella. Thus "my three umbrellas" means "my family".

I'm not necessarily going to say there isn't also a marijuana reference in there, but essentially every song he's even written gets described by someone as "actually a metaphor for doing drugs" and I think it's just a lazy way to interpret something that's a tad opaque. David Portner just writes a bit like a Modernist.

I've been listening to this song and have been researching lyrics on several sites, trying to gather a set of lyrics that is accurate. There are some parts of which I'm still doubtful, but then there are some others which I would say I've made up correctly, please revise them and listen to the song with them in consideration:

"Can we talk about the funny things? when we're hanging out the heavy mist leaves"

"View other people lie like fools I wonder if they feel like we do when always teasing but I can't imagine"

"And if you don't wanna talk let's sing that it's been about us finding new things that's always pleasing to share with some people but they'll never know you or just how I feel about your three umbrellas"

That's about it. The last bit of the song is pretty much undecipherable, have no clue about it. Hopefully someone will disclose it sometime, though.

definitely about the other ac members. confirmed by the man himself in an interview: "It’s basically a song about those other guys, Brian, Josh and Noah–the “3 Umbrellas.”

I think this is about being real with friends. In Avey's case probably dealing with the hustle and bustle of touring/recording/traveling. 3 umbrellas are Panda Bear, Deakin and Geologist. Perhaps a double meaning of they keep him sane and the band is a cover for his personal life. This is an intimate song to them that see beneath the glamour and he appreciates them.

There's a written interview somewhere on the internet where Avey confirms that this song is about his relationship with the other guys in the band - Panda Bear, Geologist, and Deakin.

Here's a shot at the ending part:

And you soften my heart, oh I hope that you care Hoping you were gonna send 'em away