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Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
- Maybe you’ve heard of Animal Collective. Maybe you have even tried to listen to one of their albums in the past and been scared away. Well, whatever the case may be, Merriweather Post Pavilion is the album you should use to start or restart your relationship with the band.
After nearly a decade of recording brash experimental songs filled with screams, often indecipherable lyrics and clashing instruments, the band has migrated towards a more melodic sound. This should not be viewed as a retreat from experimentalism. Rather, they have tightened that experimentation and given their compositions more direction, making songs more palatable in the process.
"Merriweather Post Pavilion," their most recent album, is loaded with danceable songs. Two particular gems stand out: My Girls and Brother Sport. While neither of these songs really fit the verse-chorus-verse format, they nonetheless do hop between catchy refrains and the beats and harmonies on both tracks are infectious. “My Girls” is also notable because the lyrics are not only coherent but very domestic, with lines like, “I don't mean to seem like I care about material things like a social status, I just want four walls and adobe slabs for my girls.”
Yet, both songs, and the album as a whole, sound unmistakably like a record only Animal Collective could produce. The middle third of “Brother Sport” dissolves into a mix of forest sounds. “Guy’s Eyes” has the foundations of a standard rock song that gets mutated by the Animal Collective gene, adding excessive vocal loops and trippy safari sounds. “Daily Routine” begins with a brilliant melody that is always a note away from evaporating into pure noise. Finally, half way through the song, it falls into a tense vocal crescendo interrupted only by furious piano chords and buzzing instruments in the background.
This album makes the fringe sound habitable and, if nothing else, will make you appreciate the melody of other bands more if and when you do return to them.
Reviewer: Seth Fiegerman
new
Reviewer's Rating: 9
Reader's Rating: 0
Reader's Votes: 0
Added: 9-Jun-2009
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