With Radiohead’s steady dominance of avant-garde pop/rock appearing to be at least semi-permanent, it only makes sense that Animal Collective was bound to get their day in the sun. It’s not hard to see why the Legions of Yorke have leaped like ecstatic lemmings off their many cliffs into the ocean of trippy computronics that is Animal Collective. Their dissonant, gorgeous melodies weave through a psychedelic, alien terrain of jagged breakbeats and off-time, classically arranged atmospherics, like a 3-way bridge between Sigur Rós, Air and the aforementioned Rainbows-makers.
Anyway, Animal Collective’s ninth album has been ecstatically anticipated by many, and on paper I can understand why. They proved their soundscapes prowess with Here Comes The Indian, and the depth of harmonic texture and melodic hooks made Sung Tongs a magnet for new fans. Merriweather Post Pavillion blends the two, but dilutes the potency of each strength by doing so. Put simply, this album is only as good as the drugs you’re on while listening to it.
Pavillion opens as if rising from some murky, churning depth, a tiny organ glow building and radiating a hazy ambience until Avey Tare’s voice rises in a warbly, waterlogged depth, providing the only rudder for the song for a full two and a half minutes, until the line if I could just leave my body for the night, at which point the whole thing bursts into a galloping burst of harmonic weirdness and divinity, pounding away in some undetermined direction. This leads into the high 80s synths and failed attempts at soaring melody that is "My Girls." In the span of nearly six minutes I’m reminded of almost every reason I’m so very thankful that we’re out of the 80s.
People are calling "Summertime Clothes" a masterpiece- a perfect example of the type of hyperbolic hysterics that allows me find sympathy for those who resent Radiohead’s impact on the music scene. The song is a delirious trip to nowhere nostalgia. It feels like a VW commercial that’s already been done. The next catchy Gap ad. It’s a few notches above useless drivel, sure, but by no means is it great.
When it leaked, Pavillion was being hailed by music mags and bloggy rags as the best album of 2009- and the year hadn’t even begun yet. Look- In Rainbows was a really good album. It stood for more than just the music, and will be remembered in the future as a pivotal album in the history of the downfall of the music industry. But it wasn’t meant to spawn a new music renaissance. If we’re really shooting for honesty here, there hasn’t been enough quality material to warrant one of those in more than a quarter century. We’ll get there, but not yet. Not anytime soon. Not while people like Taylor Swift and Britney Spears bathe in limelight and outsell brilliance.
Anyway, for all its meandering indulgence, there’s certainly redeeming qualities to the Merriweather Post Pavillion, precisely the elements that snotty hipsters and loyalists will rally behind in rebuttal to the raw, uncircumcised truth in reviews like this one. "Daily Routine" is a wonderfully dreamy, string-laced beatfest, while "Bluish" dips a toe in the Postal Service pond and "Guys Eyes" hits the ears like a Beach Boys / Beatles collaboration. On acid. In the summer sunshine. Furthermore, a great deal of care’s been taken to fill out the low end, and the new focus on a bass foundation is an added bonus that gives anchor to the fantasy dreams Panda and Avey spin. But there’s no redefinition here, no mind-blowing new directions being taken. This album will not be a landmark.
Songs like "Lion In A Coma" and "No More Runnin’" get lost in their own oddity, while album capper "Brothersport" is a ridiculous, repetitive Eurotrash bounce-fest that doubles as consolation over the death of a father. As the beat rises, there’s an impression of ravers thrashing like epileptics on speed. “Open up your throat,” sings Panda, and we do, but we can’t hear ourselves over the electric fairy parade.
The hype is large, the expectations high, and Animal Collective do their best to meet them- but this is no second coming. It’s good mixtape source material, or just a solid album to put on when you’re really high and feeling good about life. File it next to Talkie Walkie and Ágætis Byrjun.
CraveOnline Rating: 5/10
