Let me begin this post by saying that I am risking losing many of my thousands of RSS readers and quite possibly a few fans with this post. Seriously, this could really go either way.
I’ve never been a fan of Animal Collective. Never. To me, and maybe this was generally how I felt back then and not a true representation of how I perceive music today, but when I first heard albums by Animal Collective all I could think was “is this supposed to have any sort of discernible melody or story amongst all this extraneous noise?” And looking back my opinion of Animal Collective of a band hasn’t really changed all that much. On their latest album, Merriweather Post Pavilion (amazon) (itunes), they’ve definitely found a maturity, might I dare say even a musicality that was sorely lacking in much of their previous work. That’s not to say this album is as brilliant as everyone is claiming {I mean honestly, there have been how many blogs already claiming this album as the best of 2009 or even the best of the decade?}, but it is a solid effort. A truly solid effort.
mp3 : Animal Collective - In The Flowers
mp3 : Animal Collective - My Girls
Those are my two favorite tracks of the new album. Respectively they clock in as the first and second track on the disc and I honestly think that the album progressively goes downhill from that point on. What starts as a great exercise in musical layering, melodic interplay, and the clever use of repetitive sounds quickly spirals into abstract moments that leave you wishing that the entire album was as good as those first two songs. But it isn’t. Now granted there are other standout tracks, such as Summertime Clothes and Daily Routine, and Brother Sport has a great lyrical hook, but they just aren’t quite as brilliant as those first two tracks. Let’s hope this album shows the progression of Animal Collective and not the one amazing offering they’ll have before sliding back into their old style of creating music.
Go ahead, prove me wrong with your comments.
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I AGREE. I’ve never been a fan of Animal Collective, my ears just don’t like them. Even though Girls is a very solid and danceable tune, I just can’t listen to the whole album without cringing.
I was pretty reluctant to listen to any band with collective in their name but then just an hour ago i heard my girls on New York Noise which comes on Wednesdays at 10pm and rerun at 5am on NYCTV25 and i may have to listen to this album maybe.
I’ve been a fan of AC for their past few albums and also think that they’re are getting better. I agree this album definitely shows a “maturity” about them that wasn’t there before.
but I think you’re too linear in your thinking of them. they’re music may be slightly abstract, but it always follows a schema and I think most of their work is just brilliant.
No need to prove you wrong, I agree completely.
I feel like you’re approaching them with too much of a critic’s mentality. For me it took a couple shows, and about a year of on and off listening, and then something snapped in my brain and I fell in love.
Avey Tare’s lyrics, style, and emotion are just about my favorite thing goin. Merriweather is incredible, but not my favorite