Merriweather Post Pavilion
(Domino)
I’ve always enjoyed Animal Collective’s musical idiosyncrasies – the ecstatic whoops and squeals, the ghostly, far-off vocals that sound as if they’re sung in another room or in an echo chamber, the layers upon layers of synthetic sound studded with absurd and seemingly random samples, the rhythms seemingly thrown in as an afterthought and carrying the music along so precariously that it sounds like it could all fall apart at any moment, or that the thrust of psychedelia will escape its corporeal constraints and blast off into space. The Collective keeps me and the rest of their fans interested because they continually turn conventional song structure completely on its head while still managing to create music that’s intriguing, dynamic, and full of chaotic character.
So when I started reading reviews about the band’s ninth studio effort, Merriweather Post Pavilion, that included words like “catchy” and “accessible” in the same sentence as “best album of the year,” I was concerned. Had the band really changed their aesthetic so much?
This article appears in Jan 28 – Feb 3, 2009.