Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
|
List Price: Our Price: $10.46 You Save: $5.48 (34%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $7.25 (click here) Category: Music CD See more new music releases 
|
|---|
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
Free Music Notes for Merriweather Post Pavilion
Free Music Review: "I don't mean to seem like I care about material things."
Hit: 5 Stars
I still haven't listened to any pre-Strawberry Jam Collective to know what they really sounded like, but they seem here to have fully committed to their transition from experimental rock to some sort of psychedelic electro-pop madness, without a single guitar to be heard. It can be a bit bizarre, but starting from the explosion of noise halfway through the opening track "In the Flowers", it's easy to see that music doesn't have to be familiar to be extremely infectious and fun to listen to. I'm still not very good at telling Avey Tare and Panda Bear apart, besides the fact that Avey is the one singing when the singing's crazy. The two seem to have a tighter interplay here than they did on the last album, and overall it's a more consistently enjoyable and focused effort. More of the songs feel like fully-formed pop with actual structures, even if the different elements seem unusual. The single "My Girls" is the perfect example of this, and pretty frighteningly catchy.
Not every song is like that, with some being more firmly in the band's esoteric oeuvre, although you can pretty much expect electronic twiddling and driving bass on most of them. "Also Frightened" is as close as the album gets to boring, although there are enough interesting touches to keep your attention. "Summertime Clothes" is poppy fun and a good distillation of the essence of what they seem to be going for. "Daily Routine" reminds me the most of their last album, with dissonant beeps providing the core instrumentation, echoing vocals, and the drawn out, starkly unique second half. "Bluish" might be the closest I've seen them come to a love song, although it kind of has their sort of twist on it. "Guys Eyes" does an interesting thing with the vocals that I'm not sure totally works, but it's worth hearing. "No More Runnin" is another slower track, and a solid lead in to "Brother Sport", the final song and of the catchier ones. It's not without some off-putting bits, but the vocals and frequent explosions of musical happiness cap off a very good album quite nicely. I'm sure it's not done growing on me yet, and is a great way to start off a new year musically.
Free Music Review: Pop music of the new century.
Hit: 5 Stars
It's often that even current "best albums ever" lists take old-age albums that our grandfathers/fathers passed down to us, letting our unquestioning faith in their wisdom give us what is considered the "best music". There were a lot of great albums in the 60's, such as Pet Sounds, Revolver, Odessey & Oracle... but does a great album truly need to be legend-ified to be considered among the best?
Now we're in the 00's, and surely no albums from this decade will approach those lists until we are able to grow with them and they can be an actual part of our and our childrens' lives. This is one of those albums. Animal Collective has always been a playful bunch, experimenting on countless genres and making their own, mostly incohesively. But what holds them together is their remarkable sense of harmony and rhythm. Both of these were evident in their lo-fi debut, Spirit They've Gone, Spirit They've Vanished, but they seemed to vanish themselves... until now.
Merriweather Post Pavilion combines the 60's pop melodic style of Panda Bear (Noah Lennox) with the psychedelic eccentricites of Dave Portner. Both weave their styles in and out of the album, sometimes actually both in making each others' song their own (as in Taste, the best moment in the album). The synth flows from track to track as Ben Allen lays down the beats and Brian baths them in atmosphere. Every song shines, and people are going to have a hard time choosing the worst song. My Girls, Summertime Clothes, Also Frightened, Brothersport, In The Flowers, Daily Routine...
This album is a masterpiece.
Free Music Review: the more i hear this album, the more i love it
Hit: 5 Stars
It irritates me so much to read some of the the one-star to two-star reviews for this album.
One review in particular made me so mad, because the reviewer stated that after hearing the cd once, he or she tossed it. When you listen to a cd once, you only focus on the exterior of the songs.
To fully enjoy music, you should clear your mind, push away all distractions, and let the music absorb you. One time listeners of Merriweather Post Pavilion will most likely not enjoy the masterpieces that Animal Collective has presented. I've heard this album over 30 times now and every time I listen to it, I get rewarded by a piece of music I missed out on beforehand. Panda Bear, Avey Tare, and Geologist make music the way they want to make music. It's up to all of us listeners to decide whether we enjoy it or not. You either love it or hate it. All I'm trying to say is it takes more than one run through to really be able to rate this album one star.
The members of Animal Collective have grown to make music exactly the way they want to. Listeners should listen to all of Animal Collective's albums and EPs chronologically and maybe then will they realize how much of a present this album is to them.
From start to finish, this album is incredible in so many ways. It really takes you in. I can honestly say that there is no song I would skip.
5 out of 5. 10 out of 10. Most definitely one of the top 5 albums of 2009.
Free Music Review: A New Kind of Collective
Hit: 5 Stars
Animal Collective has always been a band on the cutting edge of musical experimentation. And while experimentation is good, it's still unfinished searching. Merriweather Post Pavilion, however, marks a new point in Animal Collective's experimental sounds. It sounds as though they've finally got it figured out.
And while many fans may be dissappointed by the lack of wildly eccentric tracks on the album, this is definitely Animal Collective's most accessible record, with pop hooks that abound. And to me, listenability, especially repeat listenability, is as important as pushing musical boundaries, and Animal Collective, a band that excels at both, have far exceeded expectations. Therefore, for fans and new listeners alike, this is the definitive Animal Collective album, at least so far.
Describing tracks is difficult, but every track on this album contains some sublime musical moment, in which all the pieces the song had been hinting at simply come together, making it impossible for me to identify a favorite track.
If you haven't already, get this. It's one of the best albums I've heard in a while, and is an early contender for best album of the year.
Free Music Review: Haters beware!
Hit: 5 Stars
I don't like jam bands, hippies or electronic music necessarily, so I never thought I'd be a person buying, let alone writing a glowing review of, an Animal Collective album. If I wouldn't have blindly heard "Summertime Clothes" on the radio, I'd probably still be stuck in some weird anti-hipster prejudice, but for goodness sakes that song is amazing. It's the song of the summer, I'd say, if not the best song all year. While I like "My Girls," I'm not sure why it gets top-billiing on this album. "Lion in a Coma" is another standout for me, and you can probably tell from those song choices that I'm more into the danceable tracks. You wouldn't be able to tell, however, that I dance uncontrollably to the only jaw harp riff that you can get your groove back to. The slower tracks, although not as catchy for me, peice the album together well and reward multiple listens. There is a difference between an album being overrated and a groundbreaking album being hailed as such, and I think the haters may realize this ten years down the line.