#5 - Phil

Animal Collective

Merriweather Post Pavilion

2009

Once in a great while, I will purchase an album by an artist or band I’ve never listened to before based on recommendations from friends and/or music critics. This was the case with Merriweather Post Pavilion, the eighth album from the Baltimore-based experimental band Animal Collective. I was only vaguely familiar with the group prior to this year, occasionally hearing Steve play one of their records during junior and senior year of college. But the hype surrounding this album was too great to ignore, and fortunately all of it was warranted… as I believe Merriweather Post Pavilion is the greatest album to be released by anyone in the past five years.

My favorite thing about MPP is the incredible amount of control Animal Collective exhibits. By “control” I do not mean restraint; I mean the overarching command they possess for every element of every song. The opening track, “In the Flowers,” feels like a full-body transcendence, accentuated by Noah Lennox’s description of dancing with a spirit in the middle of a field. As Lennox says to the spirit, “If I could just leave my body for a night…” the soft ethereal music that opens the song is transformed to another world, one of overwhelming and incomprehensible capacity. Choruses surround Lennox’s echoing chants, guiding the listener to unearthly heights of escape. Then, when the appropriate moment arrives, the spirit lets go of us and we are ready to experience the rest of Animal Collective’s life-changing masterpiece.

Merriweather Post Pavilion is an especially important album for me personally because it resurrected my trust in the state of today’s music industry. As some of you may have noticed, the majority of the albums represented on my countdown were released in the first half of this decade. As a whole, the latter half just hasn’t generated many albums that have deeply resonated with me. With this record, Animal Collective has reminded me that music’s power can lead me to places of sanctuary I never knew existed. -P.W.

One of the greatest musical accomplishments of the year and even the decade. Over the course of the decade the band has evolved from a noise folk group with Here Comes the Indian to psych-pop with the pinnacle of their career thus far. As I’ve already written a review of this record I’ll leave it at that and just say this is an excellent pick by Phil. - Ryan

Has this been raised up to "OK Computer" status yet? Certainly the most cohesive statement from one of the most defining progressive bands of this generation. It's exciting to watch Animal Collective, at the height of their abilities and their popularity, put out consistently new and innovative sounds to an ever-growing audience. A massive accomplishment and a testament to the enduring strength and elasticity of pop music. - Steve