Brother Sport

Panda Bear wrote Brother Sport to encourage his brother to talk about earlier ordeals that had troubled him. It closes Merriweather Post Pavilion and was the third single, released on 9 November 2009 on 10-inch vinyl and digitally, with a live Bleed running into What Would I Want? Sky as the B-side, recorded on 27 May 2009 at the Henry Miller Memorial Library in Big Sur, California.

It leaked on 18 November 2008 when a French music podcast played it. Blogs, Pitchfork among them, posted it before the internet policing company Web Sheriff had it removed. Richardson of Pitchfork called it Afro-Brazilian-flavored, moving from one chanted melodic nugget to the next before a swirl of psychedelic sound with rave sirens and tribal drums. Andy Battaglia of the AV Club heard a triumphant outro, like a thousand friends twirling and singing together. Allen said it was the biggest challenge, because the band had the energy nailed live, and he had to refer to their live version to match it.

Rankings and live

Stereogum placed it second on its 2012 list of the ten best Animal Collective songs, and Paste placed it first on its 2015 list of twelve, calling it one of their most exhilarating live tracks. NME described a resplendent orgy of Afrobeat pop. It closed the main set at the Manhattan Center on 20 January 2009.