A few more thoughts on…Merriweather Post Pavilion
Posted by Val in New, The Yellow Stereo
I got a text message earlier this month from PJ before last week’s graboid saying, “So I’m listening to Merriweather Post Pavilion. Expect you to convince me why I should care about this!” A few minutes later, I receive “‘My Girls’ is pretty good, though. And I’m glad there is no shouting so far.” Roughly forty-five minutes later, I get a phone call saying, in short that this album was better than expected. I think that Merriweather Post Pavilion is brilliant because it wasn’t just made for people like me, who will travel halfway across the country the country to see them, but made for people like PJ who have never been given a legitimate reason to care about the band.
Admittedly, accessibility has never been one of Animal Collective’s primary concerns. They fill their live show with material they’ve never released (so, actually, when I heard “My Girls” for the first time…it wasn’t the first time.) They wear freaky looking masks in their promotional photos. They sample abrasive sounds akin to car problems, electronic insects and muffled phone static. And of course, like PJ mentioned, there are Avey Tare’s ear piercing shrieks and growls which would be hard to deal with on their own, but then he goes and hushes his vocals to the point of utter creepiness or wavers it eerily or raises it to an almost shrill nasally level of his range. I love Avey Tare for all of the reasons I just mentioned, but for those who don’t have the patience to dig through those and get to songs like “The Softest Voice” or “Winter’s Love” which showcase some of his voice’s more delicate moments, those sounds could be decently repulsive.
Those more delicate and more atmospheric moments abound on this album, playing to the people who never had the patience to dig through Feels and Sung Tongs and were downright turned off by the aggression of Strawberry Jam or the exercise in patience that is Here Comes the Indian. They can’t afford to be aggressive when they’re down a guitar player so they cut out the shrieking and go for feelings like sentimentality (“Bluish”), springiness (“Lion in a Coma”) and unabashed joy (“Summertime Clothes”). They even follow up a slow burner for the exhausted soul with the booty-shaking “Brother Sport.” Random aside: If you find the live versions of this track, you’ll realize that Avey Tare actually does scream for a minute straight and that those electronic bleeps are nonexistent. Perhaps the man needed to, ya know, NOT abuse his vocal cords for a change.
In addition to Avey Tare sticking to the non-cyst-inducing levels of his vocal range, Panda Bear’s strong presence on this album seems to stick an olive branch out to people who would have never cared about the band. Hundreds of DJs will likely be remixing “Brother Sport” and apparently, my friends heard “My Girls” spun at a Baltimore club. (To be fair, AC is from outside of Baltimore.) It’s his voice that plays the lead on those two highly hyped tracks and that voice is a beautiful late ’60s pop throwback, with just enough of an edge. And yeah, I agree with PJ, “My Girls” is pretty good. Like, I want to lie on the ground and feel the earth spin around me to the beat of those masterfully layered bleeps and blips that sound more organic than electronic.
All of these things make the album easier to swallow as a whole, especially if you can appreciate the way that Geologist seamlessly weaves these sounds, melodies and vocal harmonies (which are at their best) together. This is Animal Collective’s pop album, but it draws from elements that the diehard fans knew Animal Collective had stewing in their mix all along. Plus, the fact that they add in new elements to a sound that’s distinctly them isn’t anything that’s going to have their established fans on backlash rampages yelling “Sell out!” They made a really really good record while still sounding like their same old experimental selves. Panda Bear, may those four walls and adobe slats be yours.
MP3: Animal Collective :: “My Girls”
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I don’t think they’ll ever be able to top “Banshee Beat” in my eyes, but “My Girls” comes close. This whole album is great, but I find myself wanting the more challenging side of Animal Collective to rear its head in their forthcoming albums.
I try to not be a ’stick in the mud’ when I approach music that I’m not familiar with… In fact, I go out of my way to “try” new music regularly, often buying or downloading (legally) music on spec. However, for all of the effort that I have put in I am unable to see the genius in Animal Collective or this particular outing … Perhaps I’m too hung up on a traditional conception of musicality or song structure, but these pieces (best way I can think to describe the parts of the CD, as they are clearly not what one might call ’songs’ in the classic sense) do nothing for me. I think all references to ‘genius’ or hyperbolic comparisons (the writing and composition of Brian Wilson) in much of the music press are premature – will this album stand up over time as a great experiment in sound or just another recording that only ‘rock critics’ can get all hot and bothered over? To refer to it as ‘pop’ (ie. popular) music is also clearly wrong – even with the AC backing away from some of their more grating habits, this is not music that will likely resound with a mass audience.
I hope their next album is all “shouting”
I have to admit to missing the shouting. “We Tigers” is one of my favorite songs. Like I said, I’m one of those people that loves Avey Tare for all of the reasons that people hate Avey Tare. But Panda Bear really shone through on this one in a big way and he does not shout.