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Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
| Pitchfork |
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With their constantly evolving sonic identity, in-your-face vocal mannerisms, and open-ended ideas about what their music might "mean," Animal Collective seem designed to inspire obsessive fans and vociferous detractors in equal measure. Merriweather Post Pavilion, their latest full-length, has been anticipated to an almost ridiculous degree, with blogs and message boards lighting up with each scrap of new information or word of a possible leak. No one who's been looking forward to it should be disappointed. Everything that's defined the band to this point-- all those strands winding through their hugely diverse catalog-- is refined and amplified here. Since their inception, Animal Collective have wandered the territorial edges of music, scoping out where boundaries had been erected and looking beyond them. They've punctuated perfectly likeable indie rock songs with bleating vocalizations. They've seeded pretty instrumentals with irritating noise. They've juxtaposed West African rhythms and melodies cribbed from British folk. They've stayed on a single chord for 10 minutes. But Merriweather feels like a joyous meeting in a well-earned, middle place-- the result of all their explorations pieced together to create something accessible and complete. Although it will be tagged as Animal Collective's "pop" album, Merriweather Post Pavilion remains drenched in their idiosyncratic sound, a record that no one else could have made. The album is named for a Maryland venue that last year played host to Santana, Sheryl Crow, and John Mayer, but its songs won't be heard on the radio, and besides, Animal Collective's M.O. requires them to exist outside of rigid formats. Nonetheless, they've found a natural way to integrate the sing-along melodies, sticky hooks, and driving percussion that have long been hallmarks of celebratory popular music....full text |
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| Spin |
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A waterlogged sample of a voice croaking, "You can dance" opens Animal Collective's ninth album, and it's a sign of what's to come, even if the trio take their time before dropping a beat. Two-plus minutes of woozy ambience waft by as singer Avey Tare wishes, "If I could just leave my body for a night." Then, suddenly, the dam bursts and "In the Flowers" floods the senses with rib-rattling bass and a giant 4/4 thump that could be transmitting from a Berlin superclub. More on SPIN.com: >> Animal Collective: The Scientists >> Animal Collective: 2009's First Great Album? >> Review: Animal Collective, Strawberry Jam From that point forward, these stalwart innovators -- David "Avey Tare" Portner (guitar, samples), Noah "Panda Bear" Lennox (drums, vocals, samples), and Brian "Geologist" Weitz (electronics, samples), now scattered among New York, Portugal, and Washington, D.C., respectively -- elude all experimental-noise, freak-folk, and indie-rock tags, and create a startling, pounding, effulgent sonic template. Somewhat incongruently, the album's title name-checks the Maryland venue where the Grateful Dead and others of their ilk often played during these high-school friends' tween years. But while jamming is certainly not Animal Collective's forte, their sound now recalls the Dead's quest for ecstatic release. Call it searching for the perfect peak. Merriweather plays like the summation of a long, strange trip, combining the group's career touchstones: harmonic Beach Boys pop, African tribal chants, minimalism, minimal techno, psychedelia, and dub. Which is a bit of a jolt, since in 2007, it seemed as though the band members were heading down different paths. Critics split over Avey Tare's and Panda Bear's solo albums (disdain for the former's inscrutable Pullhair Rubeye with wife Kria Brekkan; universal praise for the latter's heartfelt Person Pitch). Then last year's Animal Collective album, the uneven Strawberry Jam, reaffirmed that divide -- Panda played the winsome boy next door, and Avey his screechy, cantankerous foil....full text |
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| Thelineofbestfit |
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On the 3rd December, I was one of the few handful of people lucky enough to hear the brand new (9th, if you’re counting) album from Baltimore, Maryland’s finest, Animal Collective at the not-so top secret location of ‘Plastic People’. It’s called Merriweather Post Pavilion and it’s not out until January 12 and no, that’s not my pee on the floor due to the sheer excitement and anticipation I was feeling. It’s…er… just been raining next to my feet… Having already heard some of the material live on their last few London concerts and pretty much falling in love with a lot of the songs, including the recently available album closer ‘Brothersport’, thanks to the internets (Not Grizzly Bears blog I must add) I was intrigued to hear how the final recorded, mixed and mastered end product sounded. Of course no listening party would be complete with people talking all over the record and paying absolutely no attention to the music but I’ll do my best! Arriving just before it all kicks off, I make myself comfortable with a glass of wine and wait patiently. Then this ambient hum gets louder and louder. It sounds ancient. I know this noise. I’d heard this track when it was under the moniker, ‘Dancer with flowers in her hair’. It’s now called ‘In The Flowers’ and opens Merriweather. A noise not too dissimilar to a far away train coming closer and closer as it creeps in to the mix. An absolutely delicious acoustic guitar refrain repeats again. And again. Avey Taye sings about getting high, having good rhythm, and missing his wife before the sounds erupts into pure heavenly ecstasy as synths swirl and the bass disturbs your stomach. The climax is almost brutally hypnotic. People are nodding with approval. The other heads are simply swaying from side to side transfixed to the music. It’s a genius start to the record and, just WOW. Fuck. The Panda Bear inspired ‘My Girls’ sounds ethereal and tightly packed. Beginning with swirling piano and lively vocal samples, it boasts a thriving break that is irresistibly danceable. ‘Summertime Clothes’ sounds so infectious that you could see American children dancing to it on a hot day in Brooklyn, to water from fire-hydrant stations. One of my personal highlights from the record is ‘Daily Routine’. Panda Bear contributes his refined and reverb-drenched vocal as keyboard notes speed up, speed up, stop, speed up until it nicely comes together. It sounds completely insane but perfectly normal in context for the music they make. One thing that dawned on me very quickly is just how much the group progressed again with his record, musically and sonically. Its sounds dynamic but never a challenge. Perhaps they are becoming more accessible to the masses as the vocals and lyrical structure become more apparent, coherent and understandable for the listener but it’s not in any way detriment to the music. It just displays the natural evolution of the group I suppose....full text |
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