Return to commentaries

Why Even Try? The Best Album of 2009 is Already Here
 


I'm prepared to make a fool of myself and put a big, fat ol' "Best Ever" stamp - this early in the year, no less - on Animal Collective's new album Merriweather Post Pavilion (2009, Domino.) Now I'll admit, I'm a sucker for beat-driven experimental ambience (which is exactly what Pavilion is), but after my ears ran red from oft-repeated sessions of listening to track "My Girls," I swore that I was hearing the future of Indie music as we know it.

I could have been delirious from blood loss, of course, but Pavilion is a singular beast: lo-fi, harsh-edged, and as hypnotic as Phillip Glass on crack. It is, in a way, the fulfilled promise of Animal Collective's earlier forays into strange, freeform pop music ("Fireworks" comes to mind, as well as Panda Bear's "Comfy in Nautica," both of which are on The List.) This is the kind of fare that can be produced at home, on a bedroom computer, by a college student, while eating a Pop-Tart...in his skivvies.

But the accessibility is deliciously ironic, a case of out-foxing popular radio singles at their own game. In other words, simple music (with no more than a few components), produced cheaply, and shared with an unwitting global audience. The vocals are average, the technology is hardly cutting-edge, and the subject matter (such as wanting for the simple life in "My Girls") won't elicit discussion. Yet somehow, by some non-denominational miracle or just plain luck, it all comes together wonderfully.

Animal Collective has, in a sense, reinvented the wheel without even realizing it, committing acts of accidental genius in the studio. It's akin to inventing a time machine while trying to fix the toilet. Of course, there's always the possibility that the excellence of Pavilion was intentional, but I'm not going to even entertain that, lest my head explode.


Kevin Liedel runs his own Blog Dead Opera while serving as the Sr. Editor for MuzikReviews.com, contributing reviews, articles, graphic design and hot indie picks.