Merriweather Post Pavilion lp review

Despite lazy labels of ‘Freak-Folkers finally come good’ from casual fair-weather journalists, devoted followers of Animal Collective’s ever expanding vision of sound have been quietly witnessing one of the most exciting and innovate pop bands of our time morph from electroshock freakouts, jamming-drone acoustics right through to their current sample-a-delic carnival of tropical breakbeats during the previous 8 years.
However, it’s their current and 9th lp that sees them master and capture the frenetic high energy of their legendary live performances. All but one of Merriweather Post Pavilion’s tracks were originally previewed at their mind-blowing Coronet Theatre show during the summer of 2007.  Since then Animal Collective have toured endlessly, laboriously sculpting and crafting these awe-inspiring compositions of splendour in to perfection.
Along with this leapfrogged evolutionary step comes a mixture of explosive, sonic exhilaration interwoven and juxtaposed with dark undertones as both forces are balanced brilliantly, enhancing as opposed to hindering.  
Opener ‘In the Flowers’ quietly glides in with an almost nocturnal resonance reminiscent of the morning after a night dancing under the stars.  Avey Tare muses “…if I could just leave my body for a night…” before layers of Technicolor launch into the atmosphere mixing white noise, hair-raising rushes and trance-like rhythms of scattered euphoria before once again settling, embracing and acknowledging the moment and its wonder.
‘My Girls’ follows, gliding synths echo and reverberate around hop-scotch percussion as Panda Bear sings an ode to his family dismissing material possessions instead for simply having a house for his wife and daughter to live in.  The warped glam-stomp of ‘Summertime Clothes’ displays perfectly how this band refuses to stay static, not only with their sound palette, but also skipping circles around conventional structures with offset tempos, somersaulted melodies whilst singing of the joys of wandering the streets at night, embracing insomnia wrapped in a unique harmonised offering of blissful confusion.
 Each and every track delights, all saturated in elated anthemia, consistently fresh upon every listen, a mass of variety all tied together with the constant coherence of ‘Merriweather’s’ glowing, boundless, life-affirming being. The records climatic ‘Brother Sport’ epitomises this notion perfectly.  Chants of liberating oneself and fulfilling all possible potential bounce from all corners as the tracks’ middle section builds and swells before surging, jack-in-the-box-like into a barrage of tribal cadence, gyrating, exhilarating and quashing life’s many troublesome obstacles in the process.
Just as fortune goes hand-in-hand with hard work and determination Animal Collective have yet again made striving for new territory seems almost effortless though their constant journey of musical exploration and discovery.                                                                            .   special thanks to Jodie at Domino