Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavillion released a decade ago in 2009. (Photo: Animal Collective/ Facebook)The ‘Have you heard’ series is a look into significant albums across multiple genres. We will explore what made these albums tick and why they’re worth listening to today.
Animal Collective comes with a conundrum attached. What genre can any of the American group’s 11 studio albums and 9 Extended plays be labelled as? This question has divided fans and music critics alike. They have been called experimental pop, various kinds of rock, as well as a plethora of sub-genres of electronic music. None of those tags are entirely incorrect, and an argument can probably be made for whatever you happen to be pinning them down as. But none of those tags are a perfect fit either. Animal Collective has eluded that kind of definition for the span of their career with a dynamic, and constantly evolving sound. The one album that people seem to have some kind of agreement about when it comes to genre or style is their eighth and most influential one, Merriweather Post Pavilion.
The consensus about this album is that it is Animal Collective’s most straightforward and pop-like album. It sheds the themes of youthful revelry that the group had written extensively about earlier and takes on a more mature approach to songwriting.
Just because this album is Animal Collective’s most pop album, doesn’t make it a run-of-the-mill pop album by any means. Listening to the album opening “In The Flowers” sets the tone for what the rest of the album will sound like. This first track is a slow-building, watery, and psychedelic frenzy of synths, drums and soaring vocals. The second track, perhaps one their most popular, “My Girls,” a lush textured ode to domesticity and having a family. Panda Bear, one of the group’s two vocalists, belts out “I don’t mean/ to seem like I care about/ material things/ like a social status/ I just want/ four walls and adobe slats/ for my girls”. Such talk of wanting a house with a specific architectural feature to house his family is one of the indicators that the group is dealing with themes beyond what they had been doing thus far. Another such moment occurs further down the track list on “Brother Sport,” a song written for Panda Bear’s brother after the death of their father.
The album’s highest and most energetic points are held together by more spaced-out, drawling numbers like “Daily Routine,” and “Guys Eyes”. These songs break the fervour created by “My Girls” and “Summertime Clothes” to round out the album’s rougher edges. It is important to note that these songs are only medium-paced when standing shoulder to shoulder with the album’s most frenetic and dense songs. They do not slouch. They simply don’t measure up to the heights reached by the others.
It is easy to hear why there is so much agreement about why the album is the group’s most popular one. Unlike previous albums, or ones that followed, each member seems to be on the same page muscially speaking. Conflicting sonic experimentation like on their early albums is not found here. An insistence on easily digested song structures complemented by vocal harmonies vis-a-vis The Beatles or The Beach Boys are a fundamental formula behind the album’s music. All of these elements work in the group’s favour, creating a cohesive yet sonically diverse masterpiece.
