Strawberry Jam is the eighth full-length album by New York-based band Animal Collective. It will be released in September of 2007, and will be the band's first release for Domino Records. The title and track listing were revealed by band member Geologist on the Collected Animals message board on May 16.
In an interview with Billboard, guitarist Deakin described the new album as "chiseled" and "shiver-inducing". According to the interview, the majority of the album's songs have been played on the band's live shows from 2005 to 2006, but there are, "nonetheless, a few new ones that we've never played live."
Two songs that had been played extensively on the band's 2005-2006 concerts, "Safer" and "Street Flash", are not included on Strawberry JamPeacebone", while "Street Flash" and other studio leftovers will appear on future releases as well.
On June 12, 2007, the first three tracks from Strawberry Jam leaked onto the internet. "For Reverend Green", "#1", and "Winter Wonder Land" soon followed on June 18, 2007.
The internet leak for the record is anomalous in that it's been leaked in sections. Geologist stated on the Collected Animals message board that the first batch of promotional copies were watermarked, and each journalist's name would be digitally embedded on any extracted files. On June 19, 2007, a letter from the band's publicist was sent to music journalists regarding the leaking of the first three songs:
Last week three tracks from Animal Collective's new album leaked. Within minutes we were able to track the leak to a writer's CD. That person got in more trouble than you care to hear about and was almost fired. The person was also forced to write an apology letter to an entire staff of people and the head of Domino Records along with other penance.
Animal Collective member Panda Bear talked with Shout Mouth regarding the band's thoughts on the leak: