Originally published in The Aquarian Weekly

February 4, 2009

Animal Collective

Merriweather Post Pavilion

Domino

It’s not often that a band

releases their ninth studio album

to the kind of buzz that

Merriweather Post Pavilion is

receiving. After all, by that point,

you usually know pretty much

what you’re getting. I think that

what makes this album buzz worthy

can be summed up in

one word—accessibility. The

new album from the Baltimore

quartet is more listener friendly

than last year’s chaotic

Strawberry Jam.

I’ll admit to being somewhat

old fashioned. The absence of

hand-played instruments here

bothers me some. I love my

guitars and drums. But it’s not

the end of the world. This is

bright, unfettered pop music,

full of interesting synth textures

and joyous vocals. Animal

Collective is sort of the Bizarro

world Radiohead. Instead of

the darkness that Radiohead

brings, these guys bring

something like sunlight. Widely

disparate influences range from

the aforementioned Oxford

experimentalists to Genesis to

the Thompson Twins. I was really

struck by “Bluish,” which is

something of an update on the

sunny California pop practiced

by the Beach Boys.

If you told me that this was

the future of music, I’d be pretty

unhappy. But for something

upbeat, interesting, and unusual

in these dark times, Animal

Collective does just fine with

Merriweather Post Pavilion.

In A Word: Bubbly

Grade: B+

—by Ken Shane