Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
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Free Music Notes for Merriweather Post Pavilion
Free Music Review: Am I everything that's outside of me?
Hit: 4 Stars
I confess....I had never heard of Animal Collective until now. I know, I know, a total crime since I consider myself a music collector of all things musical. So "Merriweather Post Pavilion", or MPP for short, is my first AC experience. I can't compare it to their other seven albums. I can only take it as it stands and compare it to other artists.
On first listen, it was white noise with some hooks here and there, and it reminded me of "Smiley Smile"-era Beach Boys meets Talking Heads meets Bjork. On repeated listens, my appreciation deepened as the melodies and hooks began to take shape, much like AC's organic approach to making their music here.
"MPP", in the end, was a good listen. I listened to it over and over until I felt I found what I consider the four best tracks. Namely, "My Girls", "Summertime Clothes", "Lion In A Coma" and "Brother Sport". The rest of the tracks being just good, with the worst track being "Taste".
AC will not win pop album of the year, but it sure is good alternative music to just lose yourself in. I can see Grateful Dead and Phish tours right now! AC must have a trippy, hippie following of loyal fans who call themselves animal names.
As a fresh listener who has not been there all along, I give "MPP" four stars, not five, since I can think of many other albums I'd give five to. Is this five stars compared to the bands previous works? I don't know. I think it's a good alternative release for 2009, in that genre.
Of course, if you're a long time fan you'll just want to skip right over this review, but if you are new to the band like me, I give this a thumbs up, and green light it for your music listening pleasure.
Free Music Review: Psych rock for the rest of us
Hit: 4 Stars
3.5 stars rounded up.
Psychedelic rock is one of those genres I really have a hard time getting into. It's an area of music, like jam-rock, that is just too unfocused to hold my interest in most cases. The problem comes down to "noodling," or experimentation for its own sake rather than in service of the song. I guess I like tighter song construction, interesting lyrics, etc., in most cases (unless it's jazz, where the improvising somehow seems more natural).
That's why this one surprised me. I hesitated for a while after reading reviews of the album, some of which contained descriptive terms like "alien" and "tribal" (those words in an album review often send me running for the hills). However, when someone whose tastes I respect recommended it, I figured I'd give it a try. I actually like it more than I was expecting to. Yes there are "alien, tribal" moments that have me reaching for the FF button, but there are also songs like "My Girls" and "Bluish" that really have some meaning beyond the studio trickery. A lot of this is quite appealing sonically and almost reminds me of downtempo music which is a genre I really enjoy.
I give it 4 stars for now - a positive review but not overwhelmingly so. I think it's growing on me, and I'm pleased that being open-minded paid off here.
Free Music Review: Finally! The AC album for people who hate AC.
Hit: 4 Stars
For my money, Animal Collective's previous attempts at forging some pastiche of tribal spontaneity and skewed approximations of Beach Boy harmonies all failed miserably. I just didn't "get" them. The supposed cathartic power of their whimsical non-melodic non-pop song experiments was, to my confused ears, just pretentious dreck. The depth of their unconventionality, I was convinced, was matched only by their lack of talent.
Needless to say, this album really changed my opinion of the band. This is, as has been echoed by all of the fawning critics, their most polished, accessible, and ultimately best work to date. Which is to say, of course, that this is far from Top 40 material. The subtle layering of vocals over the wafting ether of what sounds like an orchestra of found organic sounds is really quite gorgeous.
In an age of the quick fix, individual MP3 song download, it is refreshing to hear an entire album that was and is meant as a whole album to be listened to in one sitting, in its entirety. MPP plays like some alien pastoral symphony, as one long piece divided into subtly shifting movements designated as "songs".
So maybe I was wrong about the band this whole time? I will definitely have to revisit their previous albums.
Free Music Review: this cruise ship has a leak
Hit: 4 Stars
Animal Collective has to be one of the most, if not the most, buoyant band amongst all the indie hoopla that continues to be spread thinner and thinner. And if my expectations weren't so high for these guys, they would have climbed higher on this list. Not that I needed Merriweather to be perfect. I just wished it had been condensed to an EP, so that I wouldn't feel so guilty leap frogging my way through the latter half of the album. Their melodies continue to be the guiding light through the darkness of their ambient textures, yet the song structures are beginning to occasionally fail. Fall Be Kind EP, released later this year, also had so many great moments, but sort of fell flat as an entity. If the pendulum continues to swing so far from its origin, I fear that the crown they too comfortably wear may be forcibly removed by someone more audience conscious.Free Music Review: Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
Hit: 4 Stars
Here comes another solid record from the psych-pop standard bearers, Animal Collective. Because I could go off on a nonsensical tangent about a billion different things while talking about AC, I'm gonna keep this short and sweet. MPP is probably the band's most "accessible" record to date, which basically means that it is the record that will bring in the greatest number of new fans who don't want to work too hard for their music. The complexity and depth of previous works like Strawberry Jam and Sung Tongs is gone, paving the way for a more clear cut, Beach Boys-esque brand of sound, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Unfortunately, expect to see a lot of annoying new hipster fans at AC shows this time around; this record will no doubt bring in the crowds.
8/10