Author: Megan Karangutkar
Photo Courtesy of Domino Records
Hello all and welcome to the first installment of my monthly music column! The idea behind this column is to revisit a particular album during its ~birthday~ month and consider why it is still a relevant listen in 2019. To kick things off, I’m going to look at Animal Collective’s 2009 record, Merriweather Post Pavilion.
Released in the first week of January ten years ago, Merriweather Post Pavilion is Animal Collective’s eighth studio album and undoubtedly the group’s most critically acclaimed work. It’s also the band’s most accessible record—that says a lot considering that the songs on here are still… pretty weird. Textured synths, strange lyrics, and chaotic atmospheres all make this a classic Animal Collective work, but it is definitely more polished and sharp than previous releases.
My first experience with Merriweather Post Pavilion was my freshman year of high-school when I heard the song “My Girls.” A 14-year-old version of myself was immediately obsessed and would listen to the track on repeat as I skateboarded (lol) to my friends’ houses. The swirling synths create the hypnotic mood of the song, but it really goes off around the 1:40 mark when the bass line comes in. The lyrics about rejecting materialism in favor of a family and a house are repeated throughout the song, but the band manages to remain engaging for nearly six minutes. Needless to say, the line, “I just want four walls and adobe slats for my girls” kills me every time.
tracks like “Summertime Clothes,” the background is crowded with reverb-heavy melodies, multiple drum samples, and layered synth sounds. It’s hard to even imagine just how many tracks go into recording one of these songs, but Animal Collective’s experimentation pays off in the creation of a wonderful and weird sonic world. Take “Daily Routine” for example. The song rattles around, switching between a pounding baseline and a twinkly, arpeggiated synth line to develop a completely immersive sound. Still, for as hyper as the initial half of the song is, it transitions into a somewhat ambient, reverb-heavy closing to balance things out and let listeners catch their breath.
Lyrically, Animal Collective are largely understandable and coherent on this album, at least compared to previous works. “Daily Routine” is about the experience of fatherhood, with very literal lyrics about walking down the street with a stroller. Hearing lines so transparently about mundane things over lush layers of synths and samples can be a little strange, but it’s part of what makes this record so endearing to me. Other tracks focus on the loss of a father, love, or circle back to the theme of materialism on “My Girls.” The song “Taste” would seem the most obvious example of this, where singers Avery Tare and Panda Bear question the value we place on material markers of taste and culture. The song ends with the repetition of the line “am I really all the things that are outside of me,” a simple but cutting criticism of the trappings of materialism.
There’s also a childlike sense of curiosity and excitement that runs throughout Merriweather Post Pavilion, making it as lovable as it is, even for the band’s critics. It’s in the production of songs like “Lion in a Coma” or the closer “Brother Sport,” where the band adds more and more layers until it feels like the tracks could explode. The second half of “Brother Sport” is practically euphoric with its bouncing synths and gang vocals. Even on a song concerned with the anxieties of fatherhood, “Also Frightened,” Animal Collective explore a childlike sense of wonder in the first two verses about running through the woods. The feeling of excitement contained in those lyrics is mirrored by the ecstatic production of vocal delivery of the track. In other words, it sounds like the band are enjoying themselves despite everything in their way. Faced with the challenges of fatherhood, death, and materialism, Animal Collective are finding a sense of freedom and wonder through their music.
And that’s why I think Merriweather Post Pavilion still holds up ten years later—it’s chaotic and complex and weird and a whole lot of fun.
MEGAN KARANGUTKAR | joan didion is five feet tall | KXSU Music Reporter