Animal Collective
Merriweather Post Pavilion
(Domino, 2009)

We do it to torture ourselves, I think. Building up our heroes until the pedestals we’ve perched them upon are too high to be structurally sound—especially if we’ve built them in a hurry. Whether or not it’s because of some perverse hope that they’ll fail (hard to admit), we have become a culture of buzzing bees, speculating and conjecturing about which band’s new album will be the Best Thing We Have Ever Heard.

Such was the case with Merriweather Post Pavilion, the newest full-length from Baltimore avante-garde-ers, Animal Collective. Like their equally eerie and much-beloved contemporaries TV on the Radio just months before, Animal Collective masterminds Avey Tare and Panda Bear were due this year for a breakout record. So desperate were fans and critics to see if they would deliver that they resorted to theft, hacking, and enough blog-based jibber-jabber to make Mr. T’s head spin.

Honestly, it never felt very negative. The whole music industry, it seemed, was poised to love this record. But as there is such a thing as killing with kindness, all the speculation was leaving me terrified that it would be impossible to separate the record from the hype.

The first two-and-a-half minutes of my first listen were filled with an understated and mysteriously harmonious musical swelling. Album opener “In the Flowers” is initially a pretty major-to-minor, repeat, chord progression stood poised to descend into one of Animal Collective’s signature building/crashing shock value intros (see “Did You See the Words” or “Peacebone”). As soon as the vocals come in—eerie, slightly altered, and non-human—over the top of the pounding rhythm, the strange melody, and the beautiful chaos around the three-minute mark, it no longer mattered what I had heard about Merriweather Post Pavilion. The album spoke more loudly for itself than any speculative blogger ever could.

Spontaneous and vital, while simultaneously smart and careful, Merriweather Post Pavilion is undoubtedly the best work Animal Collective has done to date. It’s an achievement for a band with such a distinct sound to consistently produce compelling new sounds. The entire album bubbles with warm electronic noises, sparkles with African and Brazilian musical influences, and unilaterally encompasses the elements that define Animal Collective while still sounding completely fresh.

“In the Flowers” follow-up “My Girls” is effervescent and gorgeous, and almost indescribable. It’s delicious in its sweetness and rousing in its bouncy, almost danceable rhythm. “Summertime Clothes” is built on a driving beat made up of a bizarre and instantly likeable rubbery-echoing-suction sound, shimmering synth arpeggios, and glassy, water-logged rhythmic voices that, combined, sound like an oddball chorus of delight.

Merriweather ends with “Brother Sport”, a lively, chanted track with a din of repetitive electronic noises that invoke images of people dancing, arms raised, praising the sun. Its summery Beach Boys elements is Panda Bear’s calling card, making it something that will instantly appeal to new listeners, as well as seal the album in a satisfying way for old fans.

I have to, for a moment, jump into the fray, because the “breakout” element of Merriweather can’t go without being discussed. Just because the album may seem less strange to us—and, most importantly, less strange compared to previous Animal Collective albums—that doesn’t necessarily mean it won’t seem strange to a mainstream audience. In fact, it’s guaranteed that it will. There still aren’t traditional “songs” or anything that could become a radio hit on Merriweather, and there is still very little here you can sing along with. And is mainstream success really what the band wants for itself anyway?

Well, the reviews are glowing, and many critics are touting this album as a potential classic. I’m right there with them, and the reason, it seems, that we’re all having trouble finding Merriweather Post Pavilion any less than perfect, is not because it’s perfect. As an album, of course, it isn’t. It’s weird and wonderful and flawed. The reason is that, with Merriweather, the fellas behind Animal Collective have perfected themselves: Their style, their aesthetic, their message. The album is the perfect expression of their vivacity and their extreme love of existence. It perfectly transmits that feeling of awe and awkwardness we all experience; it’s the perfect example of art imitating life. Finding fault in that would, in some small way, make music as art a hopeless endeavor. And we don’t want that.

Listen: Various Tracks [at myspace.com]

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