These are the sounds to listen to whilst wading through high grass on an unexpectedly sunny day. These are the warm lagoons we long for after a harsh winter.
The auditory beauty of Merriweather Post Pavilion arrived on the scene in January of 2009, when Animal Collective released its eighth (and most recent) studio album. After the highly acclaimed release Strawberry Jam, the anticipation for its successor rose rather high. But, as it quickly turned out, this expectation was not quite high enough for the guys from Animal Collective: it became quite the rage throughout the whole year.
This is one of those albums that takes your time and rewards you for it. It all starts with the fanfare of ascending birds in the first track “In The Flowers”. Sonically, it’s quite an inhuman song, but it simultaneously reminds us of the very nature of our perception – listen and feel the distance disappear.
Inside their studio, Animal Collective managed to reverse and delay mechanical sounds just long (or hard) enough to make them seem natural, organic, almost pristine. That is their genius. Some people are able to create something perfect, something you want to hold on to. Animal Collective consists of four of those people.
This is exactly how I experienced Merriweather Post Pavilion too. I spent hours and hours on the train, listening to these 55 minutes of quality, descending onto my hometown feeling hypnotized; somewhat stoned by all of this. I didn’t understand it immediately, but I liked the sensation I gained from it. Then, after becoming obsessed, I started appreciating its sounds and found that it is quite poppy as well. In the end I concluded: the only thing to do is to surrender to these wonderful elements.
