What's The Story?
This tune was in a tourism commercial for Vegas last week, and when asked if I knew it, I insisted that it was Two Door Cinema Club for like five minutes before I got contrary enough to jfgi. Neon Trees are a four piece from Utah, and Animal was the lead single from their first & only album to date, Habits.
Who's To Blame?
His beard is probably what a playoff beard would've looked like on an Oilers fan in the 80s.
Why ♥ It?
As stated above, despite its radio appeal and generally maligned teen/young adult audience, Animal is a tune that could easily be by a band your hipster friend was telling you about last week. Neon Trees nail the genre rudiments of singable chorus and a clean vocal line, laid over some power chords and a happy, upbeat chord progression.
But don't think that it's entirely boring.
Having the bass guitar turned up to 11 or so can always give a track an added voice, and this is true of Animal as well. See also from 1:25 until the second chorus for a great quirk in the vocals. For a song called Animal, it mostly wears kitten mittens, but at this point the vocals have a sandpaper moment that'll make you feel better about listening to such a pseudo teeny-bopper song.
You know that 14-year old cousin you have with the jet-black dyed hair, skinny jeans and goofy superfluous glasses? They like this song, but so will you.
