What A Way To Start 2009...

Artist: Animal Collective
Album: Merriweather Post Pavilion
Year: 2009
Grade: 5 pretzels

Let me get this out of the way: I've never liked Animal Collective. While I realize this is the most obvious example of where my views and the “indie rock canon” (if, heaven forbid, there is such a thing) haven’t lined up, none of their albums have ever won me over, no matter how much praise the bloggers of the world throw at them. I’ve never heard the life-changing musical odyssey I’m told is lurking beneath the surface of their songs. Instead, I hear something that makes me cringe: whimsy. At the risk of sounding completely ridiculous, whimsical music is my antithesis. I’m a self-proclaimed moody young man, with musical tastes to match. Animal Collective’s unabashed joy and bliss fly in the face of all that. Plus, any band that indulges in seven-minute psychedelic jams is automatically on my shitlist.

Something has changed, however. Because, goddamn it, I love this fucking album.

It doesn’t even sound that different from their previous albums. Rumbling electronics? Check. Fake handclaps? Check and check. Absolutely bizarre gurgly noises? Holy shit yes. But, whereas Animal Collective’s previous albums were always bogged down with insufferable jams and technicolor noodling, Merriweather Post Pavilion is a sleek, coherent artistic statement. None of the songs even break six minutes! *gasp!* It seems all the band needed to win me over was a touch of accessibility. “Summertime Clothes” and “Bluish” flirt with pop song structures, with crazy, new-fangled things like choruses and verses.

And everything fits together so nicely! For the first time, I’ve felt like Animal Collective have released an album where all the songs are cut from the same cloth, instead of some schizophrenic hodgepodge of rampant creativity. The songs have range, from the explosion that engulfs “In The Flowers” to the softer, meditative “No More Runnin’”, but everything is clearly connected to the other songs. All in all, I find that I can’t simply listen to this album; I can only sit back and immerse myself in it. The rhythms are so fluid and the harmonies are so rich that experiencing the album feels like submerging your head in a vast ocean full of color and life.

And then there’s “My Girls”. It seems hypocritical to wax poetic about the wonderful cohesiveness of the album, only to turn around and single one song out, but it’s a clear highlight that can’t be ignored. Singer Noah Lennox has crafted such a wonderful piece about domestic life that I find myself singing its mantra-like chorus throughout the day (“I don’t need to seem like I care about material things, like social stats/I just want four walls and adobe slats for my girls”). It’s, by far, the best thing the band has ever recorded and marks the first time I felt I could consider myself an Animal Collective fan.

Critics more inclined towards hyperbole are gonna throw the book of “classic album comparisons” at Merriweather Post Pavilion. My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless should probably be a common one. The most ambitious critics might even mention, dare I say it, Pet Sounds. The amazing part is that, after repeated listening, I can’t help but feel these comparisons aren’t too far off base. Merriweather Post Pavilion has that magical combination of songcraft, consistency and undeniably awesomeness that “classic” albums are supposed to have. It took years, but Animal Collective have finally recorded an album I love.