By snoadmin
It’s hard to believe, but Animal Collective is at the peak of their career with “Merriweather Post Pavilion,” a surreal mix of psychedelic Beach Boys music with bass-thumping techno rave sounds.
The leader of the group, Avey Tare (a.k.a. David Portner) has experimented heavily with surreal Beach Boys echo and reverb effects in his band, Animal Collective. However, the other band member, Panda Bear (a.k.a. Noah Lennox) has really gone overboard with repeating loops of oohs and aahs, synthesizer strings and psychedelic-echoing vocals in his own solo album, “Person Pitch.”
With their seventh album, “Merriweather Post Pavilion,” Animal Collective combined everything that made them so incredible with even more zany experimentation from the electronic professional Brian “Geologist” Weitz and producer Ben Allen. The result is an awesome album featuring looping voice samples, electronic bass thumps and hazy electronic keyboard arpeggios. Oh, and Panda Bear sings a lot more in this album.
What the hell is this album? It doesn’t sound like anything on Earth. With all the swirling beeps, guitars and rave beeps in the song “Summertime Clothes,” I felt like I was on a UFO. But when combined with Brian Wilson-styled vocals, it sounds so, so cool.
Certainly I’ve heard similar combinations of dance and disco with techno artist LCD Soundsystem. However, nothing sounds as exciting as the maddening mix of fast synthesizer arpeggios, thumping bass beat and heavily mixed vocals in the song “Daily Routine.” This wasn’t their daily routine in their previous album, but this is insanely awesome.
Now, one might wonder what on earth they are singing. Well, for the most part, they are singing about love and desire. In the surreal rave song “My Girls,” Panda Bear sings about the simple desire for the American dream. He sings “Is it much to admit I need/A solid soul and the blood I bleed/With a little girl, and by my spouse/I only want a proper house.” Perhaps it’s a goal that is almost out of reach with the state of the economy as it is right now, but it just sounds so appealing with all the fancy synthesizers, echoing guitar plucks and a loud “Whooooo!”
In the bigger picture, however, this album is more about social isolation. Perhaps the Animal Collective consists of socially inept guys who have trouble opening up. But damn, their songs about their social anxiety are just so incredible. In the song “Lion in a Coma,” Avey Tare sings “please don’t leave me/things that feel good/I’ve been lucky trying to feel good.” Who knows whether it’s even possible to feel good in this economic depression. However, the trio’s synthesizers pump out so much awesome sound, with driving bass sounds, electronic beeps and the African beat of the bass drum.
Animal Collective’s new album has showed that, yes, it is possible for a rock band to play awesome, beautiful music, in spite of the idiocy of our former president and the collapse of the economy. Don’t get me wrong — I still love listening to dark disco rock about the awful post-war world. However, it’s hard to listen to too much music of despair. The album “Merriweather Post Pavilion” proves that it is possible to play gorgeous psychedelic rave rock with only three synthesizers and some sound boards. It’s a little early to make predictions on the best music of the year, but believe me, this is the best album of 2009.
