Animal Collective “Merriweather Post Pavilion” (2009)
Animal
Collective are nothing if not prolific. Along with releasing either an
album or EP for every year they’ve been in existence, the individual
members have released a slew of solo albums between them. Whether or
not that’s a good thing obviously depends on your opinion of the quality
of their output.
My limited experience of their work (from memory, this one, previous
release “Strawberry Jam”, “Centipede Hz” and Avey Tare’s’ solo album
“Down There”) leads me to believe it’s not a terrible thing. I’m not a
rabid fan by any stretch of the imagination, but I’ve never heard
anything that puts me off them either. What I find with them is
something similar to some other bands from that era: that I quite enjoy
it on first listen but (a) I don't retain too much memory of the songs
after the fact and (b) the initial enthusiasm vanishes on re-listens.
The band had briefly parted company with their guitarist so were writing
songs based more around samples and keys. Some comparisons are made
to Flaming Lips, which I could kind of hear in that it's spacey,
swirling, layered psychedelic pop. “My Girls”
and “No More Runnin’” have kind of a Beach Boys vibe to them, both in
the vocal harmonies, the production, and even the timbre of the lead
vocal. “Lion in a Coma” reeks of India-influenced Beatles.
Again, overall there were a lot of interesting sounds, and I'd be
willing to check out their other albums that come 'into my orbit' but
they're not a band that are on my mind much (cool album cover though).
