Merriweather Post Pavilion
- Animal Collective
- Band Name: Animal Collective
- Record Label: Domino
- Release Date: Jan 20, 2009
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100MPP had aura to burn long before most of us heard it, but now those of us who have heard it and do love it know that this music will not be content to stand idle on the margins of tuneless hype. Time may very well lend Merriweather Post Pavilion a legend extraordinary enough to faithfully capture its myriad treasures.
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100It feels like one of the landmark American albums of the century so far. [Jan 2008, p.86]
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100Soulful and almost structurally flawless (it's the most minor of complaints that the middle run of songs are all about a half-minute too long), Merriweather finds one of the most talented, most creative pop bands finally and gloriously figuring it all out.
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Even by their own exuberant standards, though, AC's ninth album is a dizzying knees-up that makes most music, indie rock or otherwise, sound both bloodless and pathetically timid.
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100Merriweather Post Pavilion is heartbreaking and heartwarming, and you can either disregard what is one of the most pleasing, enjoyably rich and rewarding releases of the past decade or you can rally with the rest of us, and clap, and sing, and blare it through the earphones on your iPod because we are still all the things outside of us.
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What’s more important is that Merriweather Post Pavilion is not just one of the finest things you’re going to hear in 2009 but that it should sit well next to albums like Kid A on lists of the best music made in our time.
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100Merriweather's sound plays like both a summation and an expansion of everything Animal Collective has done so far, with a sharper focus on melody and more emboldened vocals that drive the songs.
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96It's of the moment and feels new, but it's also striking in its immediacy and comes across as friendly and welcoming.
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Has the album of 2009 been unleashed in January? I can’t see anything else coming near it.
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94Throughout Merriweather Post Pavilion the band mixes instrumentation and samples and voices in a way that seems to be an advanced or accelerated development of past triumphs.
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Nine albums and eight years in, it’s time to stop trying to figure out what the hell Animal Collective--vocalist/guitarist Avey Tare, percussionist/vocalist Panda Bear and knob-twiddler Geologist--is, and just enjoy the orgasmic rush of danceable rock.
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Merriweather Post Pavilion won't land the band the opening slot on a Coldplay tour, it cleaves closer to "Pitch's" more listener-friendly aesthetic, abandoning the self-indulgent impulses that sometimes muddied last year's "Strawberry Jam" for an album full of effervescent, transportive oddity.
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90Merriweather Post Pavilion's rare combination of great songs and vital invention make this one of the year's most important records, already.
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Is Merriweather Post Pavilion the flawless album that it's been willed to be? Taken as a whole I'd say it's pretty damn close.
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90With Merriweather Post Pavilion, Animal Collective have proven themselves to be at the forefront of progressive pop, as deadly with their textures as they are with their melodies.
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Merriweather Post Pavilion is a perfectly organized record, not a note out of place, not a second wasted.
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On Merriweather, their art reminds us that immersion in Western tropes need not be met with scorn, that not all of its idioms have yet been exhausted, that embracing optimism and melody can still be so relevant--and it aches in the most soulful of ways.
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90Oozing fun out of every pore, this record is the perfect tonic to the increasingly troubled times that 2009 brings with it and will most likely feature on many of those Best Of lists come December.
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90Merriweather Post Pavilion finds Animal Collective tight and sharp, and it suits them. Animal Collective’s music is for everyone’s world.
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Animal Collective still struggles with effective counterweights to its euphoric beauty--the attempt at romance on 'Bluish' is off-putting and some of the murkiness can exhaust and undermine--but it shifts so rapidly, with such conviction, that it's more fun to hunker down and surrender.
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Animal Collective keep getting better.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 152 out of 188
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Mixed: 11 out of 188
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Negative: 25 out of 188
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CurtisB.10Amazing. Beautiful. Incomparable. Fresh. Fun. Ahead of our time.
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timmyd10
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nash5