Album: Merriweather Post Pavilion
Artist: Animal Collective
Born: Baltimore County, Maryland
Released: January 2009
Genre: Psychedelia
Although initially I was put off by the impression that Animal Collective were just a bunch of crazy hipster kids, with crazy hipster names like Avey Tare (David Portner), Panda Bear (Noah Lennox), Deakin (Josh Dibb) and Geologist (Brian Weitz), when a friend loaned me this album I did quickly change my mind. Compared to earlier albums and EPs, the band rein in a lot of their wilder instincts on Merriweather Post Pavilion and seem to focus more on writing great songs. The group were part of a kaleidoscopic new generation of bands, including the likes of MGMT, who were updating psychedelia for modern times, inspired by the example of The Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev. Animal Collective have also been lumped in with the freak folk scene, but while earlier albums showed some folk tendencies, by the time of Merriweather Post Pavilion's release this element of their sound had almost disappeared entirely. Instead, the music is heavy on psychedelia, exoticism and derangement of the senses, something that's reflected in the album cover which, if you look at it closely enough, has a Magic Eye effect, with the leaves appearing to be in fluid motion (it was created by Japanese psychologist Akiyoshi Kitaoka).
Panda Bear was riding high after acclaim for his brilliant 2007 LP, Person Pitch, and he's responsible for writing one of the standout tracks on the album, My Girls. Although the song's riotous synths and handclaps don't obviously chime with any sense of quiet domestic bliss, the lyrics are actually a fond tribute to Panda Bear's new family life ("I don't mean / to seem like I care about, material things / like a social status / I just want / four walls and adobe slabs / for my girls"). Another brilliant single from the album is Summertime Clothes, which starts with distorted vocals and military drumming but soon morphs into a lovely chorus with great harmonies, almost a homage to the Beach Boys. I love the psychedelic layering of voices on Also Frightened and the Mercury Rev homage Bluish, but the real highlights for me come on the less frenzied second half of the record, notably Lion In A Coma, which like many songs is based around repetition, dreamy harmonies and incessant rhythms, but in this case the music benefits from the odd sound of the African didgeridoo-like instrument played by Lathozi Mpahleni Manquin Madosini from the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The record closes with the fabulous Brother Sport, full of euphoria and strongly influenced by the music and spirit of Brazil. Psychedelia has rarely sounded this joyous since the Sixties.
Although initially I was put off by the impression that Animal Collective were just a bunch of crazy hipster kids, with crazy hipster names like Avey Tare (David Portner), Panda Bear (Noah Lennox), Deakin (Josh Dibb) and Geologist (Brian Weitz), when a friend loaned me this album I did quickly change my mind. Compared to earlier albums and EPs, the band rein in a lot of their wilder instincts on Merriweather Post Pavilion and seem to focus more on writing great songs. The group were part of a kaleidoscopic new generation of bands, including the likes of MGMT, who were updating psychedelia for modern times, inspired by the example of The Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev. Animal Collective have also been lumped in with the freak folk scene, but while earlier albums showed some folk tendencies, by the time of Merriweather Post Pavilion's release this element of their sound had almost disappeared entirely. Instead, the music is heavy on psychedelia, exoticism and derangement of the senses, something that's reflected in the album cover which, if you look at it closely enough, has a Magic Eye effect, with the leaves appearing to be in fluid motion (it was created by Japanese psychologist Akiyoshi Kitaoka).
Panda Bear was riding high after acclaim for his brilliant 2007 LP, Person Pitch, and he's responsible for writing one of the standout tracks on the album, My Girls. Although the song's riotous synths and handclaps don't obviously chime with any sense of quiet domestic bliss, the lyrics are actually a fond tribute to Panda Bear's new family life ("I don't mean / to seem like I care about, material things / like a social status / I just want / four walls and adobe slabs / for my girls"). Another brilliant single from the album is Summertime Clothes, which starts with distorted vocals and military drumming but soon morphs into a lovely chorus with great harmonies, almost a homage to the Beach Boys. I love the psychedelic layering of voices on Also Frightened and the Mercury Rev homage Bluish, but the real highlights for me come on the less frenzied second half of the record, notably Lion In A Coma, which like many songs is based around repetition, dreamy harmonies and incessant rhythms, but in this case the music benefits from the odd sound of the African didgeridoo-like instrument played by Lathozi Mpahleni Manquin Madosini from the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The record closes with the fabulous Brother Sport, full of euphoria and strongly influenced by the music and spirit of Brazil. Psychedelia has rarely sounded this joyous since the Sixties.
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