Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavillion...a review...yes i like it

Ok I'm gonna first come clean and say I used to hate Animal Collective. Hate. I hated Sung Tongs. I thought it was annoying and couldn't understand why everyone was not only talking about it ,but talking about how much they loved it. So there I don't always know what I'm talking about. I don't really love Sung Tongs now, but I like it enough and enjoy individual songs mor ethen the whole album.

Like most things in music that I start out hating I now Fucking love Animal Collective. I went out and bought the vinyl version of MerriWeather Post Pavillion on tuesday after I had downloaded the album...and i don't have my record player at my house....or a job to afford it. Strawberry Jam and seeing them live was what did it for me. I may not have described to everyone reading this just how incredible it was to see them live in San Fransisco, but it was my favorite concert ever and it literally rearanged my brain chemistry....everytime I hear a song they performed that night I flash back and just smile dumbly.Whenever I want to get in a good mood I throw on strawberry Jam and wallah insta happiness.

Now I open with my initial hat for Sung Tongs because admitadelly Animal Collective isn't for everyone. I played it for my mom today and she politelly gave it 3 songs before asking to play actual music. This isn't your average pop album, the song structures are not well...they aren't really there and the lyrics don't dip deep into storytelling or charecterization or really any normal themes in modern music. What is here is a sort of dreamy ocean of emotion...good emotions. Happiness joy smiles and grins and kisses on cheeks thrown into blenders and then pieced together again.

This is the Collective's (Panda Bear,Geologist and Avey Tare... Deakon isn't on this album) pop album if you will, and it's much more "listenable" to the average "listener". The album is a cullmination of all the bands earlier works including their side and solo projects...Panda Bear's Person Pitch in particular is dominating here... It's like they sat down, looked at their entire discography and pieced together all the pieces that work. Or more likely they took all the songs that they loved playing live and how they loved plaing them and used that as a template for the new album. In interviews the band has called this their Soul album, meaning the bands true soul comming through for the first time. And yeah i can feel that.For the first time they don't sound like they're emulating the music they use to like but instead really fine tunning their sound to be the definitive Animal Collective sound.

I could talk about individual songs or lyrics, but no...this is an album.It flows together as a whole. Much like a live set these songs seem to tie into one another perfectlly, there's very few breaks in the sound. It's a lot like panda bear's solo album, the ambient sounds overtaking the music only to fade to the background again as the next piece starts.I also can't really pin point a favorite part. I've caught my self singing, humming or thinking about almost every song on this album. I acually woke up this morning mumbling 'lion in a coma lion in a coma can't you smell the aroma'...it confused my dad. My favorite thing about this album is the tone and sort of charecter it take. It's so child like an innocent, so fun in a skipping threw the park kinda way. The band sings about family, friends and falling in love. They sound so sure of these ideas of joy and happiness it just so reassuring in such fucked up times.

My favorite aspect of any music is the way it transforms your prain chemistry. The sort of psychic force it has on you. Sad songs making you sad, or comforting you when your upset. Happy songs filling out those car rides with the windows down. Dance music making you shake your ass like an idiot from midnight till 4am....think about that, what other legal substance has such control over our emotions and lives in such vastly drastic ways then music. Animal Collective fits in with the best. They are a joy. They're smart talented artists who really know what they want and how to create it. I envy them and pity anyone who won't give this album a serious try. Your missing out. Just open up, throw those old thoughts on what music is out the window and jump down the rabbit hole for awhile. It's fucking crazy down here and it's much much better then real world.