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Sunday, September 9, 2012

Mark’s Pick of the Week: Merriweather Post Pavilion by Animal Collective

           
            “Why Animal Collective Mark?”  You may be asking violently shaking your monitor.  “And if Animal Collective then why not their new critically acclaimed LP Centipeed Hz?”  First of all don’t shake the monitor like that.  It’s really bad for it, and I won’t be able to feel it anyway.  Second I’ll explain if you’d let me stop narrating your initial response to this article. 
            The reason for this pick is two fold.  First, my good friend and tallest blogger Elliot is a big Animal Collective fan, and I’ve been missing his contributions to the blog.  As anyone who knows Elliot can tell you, playing Animal Collective will bring Elliot out of the woodwork like…well…a hipster to a new Animal Collective album. 
            The second reason may be a bit of a surprise to most people.  I’ve never listened to an Animal Collective album all the way through until today (the day I started writing this not the day you’re reading this silly).  This morning, after hearing an interview with a few of the band members on XPN I decided to finally take the plunge, so I’ll have something to compare the new LP to.
            Instead of taking my fixed gear bike to the coffee shop to document my decent into full hipster I deiced to listen to it while I cut my lawn because the lawn needed doing.  Quite frankly I am SO happy I did because it was a really interesting experience.  The two things this added to my experience were the sounds of my surroundings, and my inability to check my Ipod.
            This is an ambitious project.  There is a lot going on in this album, and each sound was recorded and mixed with all the other sounds in just such a way.  Things fade in and out, build up, change and blend.  In the opening track “In the Flower” there are instruments, but there is also cricket, frog, and running water sounds (probably more natural sounds that I haven’t picked up on yet) that all come together with the music, and independent of the music. 

It’s the same effect you could get if you were out in nature playing the songs, but every creature or element making the sound would keep the beat and volume as if they were in the band.  There are plenty of other examples of this nature sampling in the album that helps to give it phenomenal natural sound.  While I mowed the lawn I got the feeling that the music was almost being performed around me with even the hum of the mower adding it’s own little piece to the natural symphony AC already put together for me.  In fact there were a few time where I looked around thinking a sound I heard was happening off to the side or something.
The second thing I mentioned was not being able to get to my Ipod.  Because of this I didn’t realize where the songs were beginning or ending.  Looking at the length of songs, especially ones this long and expansive, can really take you out the moment.  Chugging along through these song like I was chugging along with the push mower helped me to appreciate the tension this album so masterfully creates.

This album is one of repetition with purpose.  What I mean by that is a lot of the songs build these crescendos by slowly but surly building up the parts of the song until they climax often with REALLY impressive results.  Take “My Girls” probably one of my favorite tracks on the album as an example.

How’s the best way to end this post?  How about a song that exemplifies both of the points I mentioned.  “Summertime Clothes” I think really does this well even if, in my opinion, the first point is a bit more evident.  However, Animal Collective are more of an album band anyway, so to get the full experience you need to listen to the whole thing anyway (says the guy who just started to take that advice.)  Any hypocrisy aside I really enjoyed this and “Strawberry Jam” and I look forward to hearing their new release.  These guys have a website, because they’re cool like that, so if you like what I’ve put up defiantly look into these guys because between their solo and group stuff they put out music like ever other week.

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