By Joshua Errett

What is it with these collectives? Everyone either loves a music collectives, or is a part of one themselves. Pretty soon there will be no bands or groups, just collectives. When there is a group of recognizable musicians playing together, does it sound better? Perhaps it’s the sense of familiarity with the members, or just watching the group dynamics on stage or record. Whatever the case, it’s popular. Like when the Wu-Tang Clan, one of the first rap collectives, released almost 10,000 solo records after a successful “collective” first album. Then of course there is Broken Social Scene, an art rock collective that has a similar number of outgrowths (the latest being Apostle of Hustle’s Folklorick Feel). And don’t forget about Collective Soul, and their 1995 hit “The World I Know.” But the “best collective” award this year definitely goes to New York City’s Animal Collective. The band (or should I say collective!) has released two of the year’s strongest albums, with Animal Collective’s Sung Tongs and Panda Bear’s Young Prayer, and are touring both those albums in one. They bring their psych-pop freak-out acoustic/noise rock to the newly renovated Lee’s Palace tonight.