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HOT OFF THE PRESS – Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavilion
It’s Wednesday, and that means it’s time for Nick Courtright’s weekly first glance at music discovered in the last seven days, whether it be just-released, just-leaked, or some long-lost gem that has remained under the radar. Click here for other recent editions of Hot Off the Press, featuring acts such as Deerhunter, TV on the Radio, M. Ward, Deerhoof, Juana Molina, Crystal Stilts, White Denim, and Grizzly Bear.
released on disc January 20 on Domino
Report Card: F (no, just kidding. It’s an A)
Over the past couple weeks it’s become increasingly more difficult to discuss with any semblance of sense the latest release from Animal Collective. After all, an album this grossly anticipated doesn’t come along very often, and with such praise upon its arrival (influential music blog Stereogum had this as a headline: “Is Merriweather Post Pavilion the Best Album of 2009”—and they ran that headline with 360 days remaining in the year. Secondly, manytime stick-in-the-mud Pitchfork Media proclaimed the album a 9.6 on a 10 point scale). Taking all that into account, plus the innate complexity of Animal Collective’s kitchen sink musical approach, the album seemed destined to receive little more than exaltations of brilliance and accusations of blasphemy against the few who dared to naysay. And while not enough time has passed to truly put the work into perspective—I’d suggest it has a ways to go before we put it up against the likes of In the Aeroplane Over the Sea in a bracket for greatest indie album of the last quarter-century—enough time has passed for the initial sheen to wear off, thus leaving Merriweather Post Pavilion ready for the type of constructive criticism it seemed incapable of receiving when most everyone was busy tripping over themselves to proclaim the album far more important than peace in the middle east.
But first, it must be admitted that because declarations of the album’s greatness are well-worn—the song “My Girls,” not to mention “Also Frightened,” “Brother Sport,” and “Lion in a Coma” are all very sure to be in the running for top ten songs of the year—any attempt to complain seems a little like grasping at straws. Nonetheless, here are some good old college tries:
• It seems one song too long. The album is a knotty, ultra-dense exercise in attention to detail, and each listen all the way through begs the listener to pinpoint what song seems most palatably nominatable as the track to cut—the conclusion most commonly come to (it seems) is to rid Merriweather Post Pavilion of “Daily Routine,” if only because it’s a little caustic compared to the rest of the album. But of course, that doesn’t mean “Daily Routine” isn’t good, because it is—it would make an excellent first track for an EP, even if it feels a bit shoehorned into this collection.
• Merriweather Post Pavilion is a half-assed album title. Using the name of a somewhat unspectacular Baltimore music venue may have nostalgic value to the band, but it also results in the album lacking a truly unifying theme. When it comes to constructing an opus for the millennia, it seems like a more demanding moniker would be beneficial, and naming the album after a venue smells a tad like a copout, not dissimilar to the slew of records named after recording studios (Wolf Parade’s At Mount Zoomer being the most recent bell-ringer of these). This is nit-picking, yes, but the album could have been better served with greater innovation on this front.
• The rough edges of the group have been filed down. While Animal Collective have long been known for their eccentricity, whoops and hollers, their abrasive song structures and ear-splitting repetitions, this album almost feels safe—even moments when they easily could have gone batshit, they kept themselves under control. And while that makes this the most accessible Animal Collective album yet, it also is sure to raise some eyebrows with fans who miss the outfit’s least accessible moments.
• But here, as usual, is the real drum to beat for those who scoff at Animal Collective’s recent rise to fame: the dudes, now more than ever, don’t play “instruments.” Sure, one or two of them may hold a guitar or hit things with a stick every now and then, and they do sing, but for the most part their performances are marked by a couple guys standing behind stacks of synthetic-sound-reproducing electronic equipment. This is one of those things that either bothers you or doesn’t, but it’s sure to be a rallying cry when this album comes up for end-of-year honors, even if you consider the “realness” of instruments to be besides the point.
So that, friends, was an honest attempt at picking apart one of the most impressive albums of the last few years. Hell, someone had to do it.
Live video of “Lion in a Coma”:
Listen to music by Animal Collective here