Growing up in San Diego you hear kids toss around the name Rafter Roberts with a hushed kind of reverence. Little later those same kids get older and when the dude comes up in conversation, he’s just that–a dude, a bro, a likable, lovable, redheaded guy you’ll find dancing at the Whistle Stop with his lovely lady or just walkin’ around in the good clean morning sunlight, smiling and healthy and right with the world. The reverence I felt as an impressionable San Diego kid was for the albums the man produced and engineered. Black Heart Procession, Tristeza, Rocket from the Crypt, all the big guns were there. Later, he helmed records for folks like the Shaky Hands, the Fiery Furnaces, and label-mates Castanets, Sufjan Stevens, and DM Stith. (His credits are far too lengthy to list here but, let it be said, the guy has worked his share of wonders.) Now, because he’s not the type of man to toss his merits in your face, it might take a while for an impressionable San Diego kid to learn that Rafter makes his own solo music. From my own experience it was years before I knew the guy’s personal stuff (aside from the excellent art-punk-pop duo Bunky.) For the vets and first-timers, then, welcome Animal Feelings, Rafter’s fourth LP for Asthmatic Kitty, and watch as it comes busting out of the gate like a dozen thundering palominos carved from gold, alabaster, and pure stoke. Animal Feelings is a pop record and we can front how all we listen to is “nothing but, y’know, noise and improv