Buzzin Music

Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion – album review

On their ninth studio album, Animal Collective, the popular avant-garde music group consisting of Avey Tare (David Portner), Panda Bear (Noah Lennox), Deakin (Josh Dibb, who doesn’t appear on this album), and Geologist (Brian Weitz), come back from various side projects to produce Merriweather Post Pavillion, an album that sees them at their very best.

Merriweather Post Pavilion

Named after the venue in Maryland, Merriweather Post Pavilion is worth regarding in the same frame as ‘Feels’ and ‘Strawberry Jam’ as part of the more accessible Animal Collective era. Previous albums such as ‘Sung Tongs’ have been difficult to get along with – random strumming, warping sounds and annoyingly bitty, nightmarish voices zooming in and out of the mixes.

Here, though there is a distinct absence of that. Instead we get songs (relatively) structured by complex, tribal beats. Vocalists David Portner and Noah Lennox harmonise with intricacy, making melodies of various parts rather than the normal lead-and-backing-vocals-routine. And it is the pair’s chemistry that, despite some complex free-time parts and unpredictable tunes, dominates the Merriweather Post Pavilion.

So why, if this is accessible, do Animal Collective still sound so elusive? Why is it so hard to compare them to anything else? Why is it so hard to define the emotions produced by their work? Of course the difficulty in answering these questions is the answer to the questions themselves, but there are a few things that grab you on Merriweather Post Pavilion:

First, its vocals and their effect – the tunes are original, and the production is perfect – one moment they are psychedelic and floaty then suddenly they become catchy and repetitive. On ‘Taste’ and ‘My Girls’, the wonderful rhythms and the instrumentation of the electronics are simply outdone by the interweaving melodies.

On ‘Bluish’, the lyrics are so ethereal you hardly pay attention to anything but their tune, and then suddenly a refrain comes that grabs you, and you are treated to some fantastic lyrics, the lovely simplicity of which you would hardly attribute to a band with such an avant-garde image:

“Put on the dress that I like
It makes me so crazy, though I can’t say why
Keep on your stockings for a while
Some kind of magic in the way you’re lying there”

Then there is the instrumentation, which without Deakin’s guitar work is probably even stronger, particularly compared to the overloaded Strawberry Jam.

Echoes of Panda Bear’s solo album ‘Person Pitch’ are audible, and repetitions make tracks like ‘No More Runnin’ all the more hypnotic and paradoxically, all the more elusive.

What’s more, this is an album: the tracks are cohesive yet varied, which is an even greater feat considering their short length in comparison to previous albums. Merriweather Post Pavilion, out now on Domino Records is a remarkable achievement for a band that has been growing in stature, and surely will be seen as part of the peak of what is their already very accomplished career.