Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion (2009)

stupid internet

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

I don't care for fancy things
Or to take part in a precious race
And children cry for the one who has
A real big heart and a father's grace

I don't mean to seem like I care about material things like a social status
I just want four walls and adobe slabs for my girls

straight·for·ward

1. Proceeding in a straight course; direct.
2.
a. Not circuitous or evasive; honest and frank. See Synonyms at frank1.
b. Free from ambiguity or pretense; plain and open.
adv.
In a direct course or an honest manner.

I take back everything bad I ever said about Animal Collective. This album is tremendous.

why do you like it so much mordy

Well, for one thing I find it much more memorable, more hooky, and more -- poppy? than their other albums (and side projects). So it's actually a joy to listen to the music. And once I can get into the frame of a song, I can start to appreciate all the other sonic stuff that's going on. So "Summertime Clothes" sounds drenched in water, and when they sing "I don't mean to seem I care about material things" on "My Girls," I both love the lyrics (which are, FBOFW, key for me), but also love the way his voice moves around the lyrics.

I think what's really distinguished this album for me from their other output is that it's immediately accessible on a very - what Frank might call - a free lunch level, and then it builds on that for me. But there's a place for me to start. By contrast, with Person Pitch, I felt like I was just banging my head against these monoliths over and over again without making any headway. I need some 'in' before I can start to love everything else -- and I really love everything else with this album too. But as elaboration.

Not sure if this makes total sense. If not, I'll try to figure out my reactions to this album better.

no, i get what you mean with the 'in' song. preson pitch is my fav thing related to them by a considerable distance, but it took me a while to get into too. once "carrots" hit me, i was able to love the rest.
as for this one, i really like "in the flowers" a lot, but i can't seem to connect with another song to the same extent. i used to really love the old live version of "brother sport" too, but i'm not feeling this new, aired out album track

I think my favorite three tracks are My Girls, Summertime Clothes, and Bluish. The last almost entirely for the "curls" section.

Also, I got new speakers tonight, and that might've made a huge difference since they are the warmest sounding sound system I've ever used in my living room.

does anyone know how many copies this sold in its first week?

hang on let me log in to soundscan

Merriweather Post Pavilion - 5,567,987 units

lil wayne cameos carry weight grady!

5.5 million!? wow...

Yes. That statistic is completely real and factual.

does anyone know how many copies this sold in its first week?

― Bee OK, Tuesday, January 27, 2009 11:08 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I read on another board that it will debut at #13 with 25,000 units sold. No idea if that is true, though.

new song (sky) and lion in a coma live on the bbc
http://www.bansheebeat.com/ac/Stuart%20Maconies%20Freak%20Zone,%20BBC%206%20-%2025.01.2009/

Also scoring career-best numbers is Animal Collective with the Domino album "Merriweather Post Pavilion." The project lands at No. 13 with 25,000; it debuted at No. 38 two weeks ago on the Top Independent Albums chart purely on vinyl sales.

http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/taylor-swift-album-starts-eighth-week-at-1003935143.story

I was kind of disappointed when I finally heard "Summertime Clothes" on the album. I'd heard it live, and the marching bassy stomp present in the verses approximates what they did live. Avey yelled on the chorus, though, and the instruments and bass (especially the bass) were pushed hard on that part. I liked the song a lot especially for that peaky part, so the version on the album wasn't as exhilarating when it gets to the refrain. It's still a great song, but it was the one instance I could pick something out on the album as too polished.

There's a live version on the end of the album as purchased from iTunes; I actually far prefer the studio one.

I had a dream last night these guys were recording their new album in my apartment and Avey was like the most disgusting houseguest ever. High all the time, spilling shit all over me, constantly doing that yelping thing he does.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3187/3083240768_f9a88f7bab_b.jpg

exactly.

^ never gets old.

http://www.jefframirez.com/ilx/tuomasclub.jpg

never gets old.

12. Andrew Bird Noble Beast 25, 700
13. Animal Collective Merriweather Post Pavilion 24,700

when did Andrew Bird become so popular?

ask the nyt

Yeah, the Bird placing baffles me a little too. I figured he'd be back in the 40s or 50s somewhere.

These guys wear sixties mysticism really well. They made a personal playlist/"mixtape" for a website not too long ago and so many of the band's selections were late sixties and early seventies album cuts from bands that, for a long time, were stigmatized with the "hippie" label (Mama's and the Papa's, Joni Mitchell covers, Cat Stevens, The Byrds circa Notorious B.B, "Tomorrow Never Knows," etc). Their sound encompasses much more than just that genre of rock but their attitude and aesthetic seems to be very firmly grounded in the sixties, and the mysticism and Eastern spiritualism that was in close proximity (Just look at the band's name).

Also, there's that hippie aesthetic of "This isn't a simple chorus or a hook, we're singing this part of the song like it a religious mantra, or a chant, guys" in a lot of AC music, along with another hippie-rock gimmick: hypnotizing loops and sounds that are meant to induce something in-between a glazed-eye and a spiritual rebirth. It's a mindset that's all over the music they put on the aforementioned online playlist. People often times just associate psychedelia with the surrealism, radicalism and the drug use of the era, almost always neglecting or underemphasizing the neo-Theosophic influence that was overtaking youth culture. The way the Beatles' went into some sort of Eastern chant at the end of "Hello, Goodbye" was probably just as shocking and revolutionary to most Western youths as a lot of the oddball stuff on "I Am The Walrus." With Animal Collective I'm reminded of the "rock music as an Eastern religious experience," style that was stamped on so many sixties records and then went away. When AC is at their best I think that's one of the things that sets them apart from so many other sixties-loving bands - they way they internalize the spiritual aspect of the music they love, and not just the superficial exterior. Now whether these guys are actually "let's go sleep in the fields" mystics themselves is beside the point, the point is just that they've managed to capture that element from their original influences and I can hear it in their music.

I should also point out that before he died in the early '90s Timothy Leary was raving about the potential of "the internet" and how it'd change everything. So...

Timothy Leary championing acid>Magical Mystery Tour>LARGE GAP>Timothy Leary championing the internet>Pitchfork Media>Blogs>???>Animal Collective

The links are becoming ever more clear.

The thread has worn its welcome out/
Before the record did.

Timothy Leary championing acid>Magical Mystery Tour>LARGE GAP>Timothy Leary championing the internet>Pitchfork Media>Blogs>???>Animal Collective

most o_O timeline i've ever seen

I don't know about the hippie think but some AC stuff recalls Nirvana for me. 'For Reverend Green' especially. But the use of repetition in particular is very reminiscent of what Cobain did.

I bought this album the other day and listened to it a few times

it's okay I guess but seems kind of flat and snoozy until the last 3 tracks

Feels and Strawberry Jam and Person Pitch and Water Curses all had interesting textures + memorable melodies; this has the cool textures but I can't remember any of the songs once it's over

last night I fell asleep listening to Stars of the Lid on my stereo. this record was in the 4th slot of my 5-CD changer. I woke up in the middle of it and couldn't figure out what was going on at all. like, I knew I was listening to the new Animal Collective record, but the sounds didn't seem to be following any kind of logic. this actually made me a lot more curious about the album.

Andrew Bird's previous record has sold more than 100K...that chart placement isn't so unusual.

bump

why?

lol

Animal Collective

why?

lol

hahaha

Hahah I had been tempted to revive this thread with a 'well that all died out pretty quickly then.'

I saw Avey Tare* on the Subway. He had some newly purchased records and a weird-looking bundle of blankets or clothing.

*I could not actually identify him on sight as Avey Tare, I just recognized him as "I think that might be the guy from Animal Collective."

i don't know if it's just the mp3s i have or if these guys actually have no low end at all, but in any case they are way too in love with that upper-middle treble range. all that wind-in-the-willows babbling-brook shit, they need something on the bottom to keep it from just all washing away.

and i know that's the range they've always worked in, and i liked it early on when it was more clattery and less precious, but even the clattery stuff now to me seems wispy. it's like being assaulted by eggbeaters.

I can't deal with them. I keep trying (have been since Sung Tongs) but they just sound awful to me, they give me a headache inside seconds, and as much as I want to like them from all the descriptions, the reality doesn't have the melodies, hooks, or rhythms I feel like I've been promised. The last Panda Bear record was much more tolerable, but still... so thin, so irritating. My antipathy for them is so deep that I actually can't understand why anyone else would like them at all, which is pretty rare for me.

this got released on emusic last week by mistake

The last Panda Bear record was much more tolerable - to my ears this record is ultimately the logical conclusion (or next step, let's hope) of the sound cultivated on the Panda Bear record, so I can't really understand the basis of differentiation.

*of = "for"