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Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Let's Talk About... Our Requisite Animal Collective Blog Post

Posted by Ned Lannamann on Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 2:19 PM

(Note: We are required by the Laws of Indie Music to talk gushingly and at great length about Animal Collective's new record, the highly-anticipated, top secret Merriweather Post Pavilion. You may be sick of hearing about the madly creative band by now, but here is our legally obligated blog post.)
acmpp.jpg

(It's not the computer monitor. It's you.)
"We're only a week into the new year and already we have an album that demands and rewards repeat, complete listening. What album stands a chance of replacing this one at #1 of 2009?"
So sayeth Stereogum about the new Animal Collective album, Merriweather Post Pavilion, out today on vinyl and due on CD in two weeks.

Huh. Already the best album of the year? That kind of blanket statement—even if done in the wishy-washy form of a question ("Is it?") seems irresponsibly shortsighted—but Stereogum certainly isn't alone in their effusive praise; indeed, all of the blog-o-nets are collapsing over themselves in orgiastic glee. However, I've only just dipped my toe into the new record, and I like it, sure. It's good. It's nice. It's got that warming, airy quality that cropped up on Panda Bear's solo album. Kind of like a nice soft pillow. It's a damn sight better than Strawberry Jam, and not as interesting or as exhilirating as Feels.

This is the sort of hoopla the virtualsphere inter-web is excellent at perpetuating. In fact, this kind of hot-breath anticipation used to happen pretty regularly; a song or an album would leak, people would flip, and then the album would limply come out, often to a more measured reaction. I kind of thought we were past that point. So maybe then, the new Animal Collective is just that good?

I'm skeptical. I do like it; it's pleasant, and kind of "aw shucks" cute, in a Wilson Brothers kind of way. In fact, it's downright pretty. But the strength of AC's best stuff has been a bizarre, stilted momentum that the new songs, in all their pop-friendliness, nearly do away with entirely. What are your thoughts, fair readers? I know for a fact many of you adore it.

If you don't already have the slab of vinyl on your turntable—or simply don't do vinyl—here's track 1, "In the Flowers." You can also hear track 2, "My Girls" on the Animal Collective MySpace page (and I am confident you can find the rest of the album online without too much trouble).

LISTEN:







Animal Collective - "In the Flowers"

Your thoughts, please.

 

Comments (6) RSS

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1
Okay, I've gotten through the record about four times now, and here's what I have to say:

It is good.

Is it the best album of the year? Um, the year just started, and chances are the answer to that question is no.

"My Girls" and "Summertime Clothes" are clearly standouts, and both "Bluish" and "Lion in a Coma" are damn good as well. It feels like a solid record straight through (something I haven't really been able to say for the band before in the past), and one that I am going to have a lot of fun with on repeated listens. I am not ready fall all over myself to proclaim it the greatest thing in the world, though. There is nothing that has caught me the way that "For Reverend Green" and "Fireworks"--or Person Pitch for that matter--did.

I am still going to enjoy the hell out of this thing though.
Posted by Rob on January 6, 2009 at 9:38 PM · Report
2
I agree with Rob. It's really good, but hardly THE GREATEST RECORD IN THE HISTORY OF EVER.
Posted by ezra on January 7, 2009 at 2:41 PM · Report
3
I'll reserve judgment until I hear the full album (and not super quiet-like on my work computer's speakers). But the thing that immediately stands out to me in a bad way is the vocals. They sound so processed. And while I understand that you gotta mechanize them these days in order match the spacey and ethereal vibe of the music, it's just not what I'm into. And in this instance it would do well with more clear, subdued vox. But I'm probably on the extreme here - I can't even get into TV on the Radio because they sound so over-produced and processed. Anyway, that's my very first impression.
Posted by ROM on January 7, 2009 at 3:00 PM · Report
4
Is it just me or does "Brother Sport" sound like something you'd hear on El Guincho's next album? I guess AC are experiencing the Radiohead dilemma: How Do You Not Sound Exactly Like Those You've Most Influenced? But shit, the comparisons are just too alike, and they don't fall in AC's favor.
Posted by Mr. Chuck on January 10, 2009 at 5:18 PM · Report
5
Also, I love a good conspiracy theory. Why do all the early glowing reviews of "Merriwether Post Pavilion" sound programmatic, formulaic and downright robotic? It's like rigged voting, or thrown boxing matches. Did these publications really receive "early" copies of the album or did they have to throw something up (that sounds like a PR agent wrote it) so as to beat the tidal wave of blog naysayers?

I say all of this, but I still love the album. A tad better than "Feels" but not as interesting as "Sung Tongs." And for the first time I have AC songs stuck in my head.
Posted by Mr. Chuck on January 10, 2009 at 5:30 PM · Report
6
I now amend my previous post: "Brother Sport" has been a song in the pipeline since at least 2007 (well before "Alegranza!" came out) so, um, dibs go back to AC.
Posted by Mr. Chuck on January 20, 2009 at 11:32 AM · Report

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