For a group with a track record as long as Animal Collective’s, it’s astounding how little Centipede Hz sounds like their past work. If anything, it most closely approximates the underworld sounds of Avey Tare’s solo album Down There. Animal Collective is not the band people think it is, simply because it’s never been.

How about a little humanity being introduced into the interiors of UNF commuter buses? Since when have college students felt the need to silence themselves and wear a non-confrontational stare as they...