Animal Collective’s latest album Merriweather Post Pavilion is the most hyped independent record I have come across in the last few years, save for maybe Arcade Fire’s Neon Bible. Indie kids have waited with bated breath for this record since its annunciation in October. Hoping for a leak, some went as far as to hack into the e-mail account of band member “Geologist” (known to the IRS as Brian Weitz), however, Animal Collective fans, there is no more need to fret, the record is out now.
The album starts with “In The Flowers,” which begins as if David “Avey Tare” Portner and the rest of the Collective are walking through electronic muck. Around the halfway mark Tare sings, “If I could just leave my body for the night.” After this, the album lights up, changing from mysterious noodling to a drugged-up carnival. All of a sudden, the worries that started the song are gone and in its place are the limitless possibilities that exist when summer is just beginning.
The album’s second track, “My Girls,” replicates the best of Animal Collective’s past and ties it together into one song. Noah “Panda Bear” Lennox’s up-in-the-clouds vocals? Check. Building the song on layers of samples and drums? Check. It all builds up to Panda Bear’s proclamation to living the domestic life, “I don’t mean to seem like I care about material things like a social status / I just want four walls and adobe slabs…for my girls.” From there, Tare yelps and the band goes into full rave mode, complete with echoing the chorus and rapturous drums. With all these parts in play, this is best song on a great album.
That isn’t to say there aren’t great moments throughout the rest of the album—“My Girls” is just really good. There’s the charm of “Summertime Clothes,” with its simple lines like the chorus of “I want to walk around with you” running over electronic bliss. The last track, “Brother Sport,” is a last reminder of how good this album is, complete with freak-out synths and another catchy line (“Open yo your throats”) that will stick in your head. This year has only just begun, but with this kind of quality, there is already a front-runner for album of the year.
Animal Collective has put together their masterwork, more accessible than past albums, and still artistically sound. This is an album that will be the measuring stick for this year.
