Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion (Review: MattJ)

I had been looking forward to this album for quite some time and was instantly on my mind when the idea of New Release Sunday came up. When it comes to music I am always on the lookout for anything different, stuff that has something new and unique to offer - but that's obviously not enough, it has to actually be good and I have to like it. Luckily with Animal Collective this is what I've found.

But I was worried at first. I didn't think the album got off to a very good start at all with In the Flowers and I was wondering what I'd gotten myself in to. I found this song to be just plain odd, but not in a good way (I consider cLOUDDEAD to be odd in a good way). I didn't like how I could barely hear the vocals and it made me think: do you not want me to hear what you're saying?

Thankfully the album picked up from here because I very much enjoyed The Girls - which is, according to last.fm, their most popular song and I can see why that is. The simple little beat that continues throughout is very nice and really sucked me in to the song. Then I realised that this song isn't just a minimalistic little beat and some echoed vocals - it is a very layered song with lots of slight noises here and there and it made me think that I had missed something with the opening track.

Another paragraph must be dedicated to my favourite song on the album: Summertime Clothes. It's got such a lovely bouncy beat to it that hand me hopping around in my chair. As well as this it has wonderful lyrics that tell a story about going out on summer nights. In fact this song put me in a massive summer mood so that's a big ol' positive mark. I've been playing this catchy happy song all day.

Although I liked the album quite a lot I did find myself bored on occasions. I didn't really find entire songs boring, just that a few of them dragged on slightly, for example on Also Frightened, I could have done with it being 2 minutes shorter, same goes for Brother Sport. I think that knowing when to cut a song short and when to make it a long one is important for the album as whole so Animal Collective need to work on that.

But overall I found this a very enjoyable album which I will be playing again and again, hopefully all summer, but again it is not perfect at all and I really expected more from a band's eighth studio release. 3.5/5

Album Highlights:

Summertime Clothes
Bluish
My Girls
Daily Routine