Published: Monday, January 12, 2009
Liner notes: "Merriweather Post Pavilion"
"Merriweather Post Pavilion"
Animal Collective
WHY CARE? Animal Collective dreamed up its ninth studio album as a batch of songs meant to be played outside, then gave it the same name as an outdoor concert venue designed by Frank Gehry.
TRIVIA: The cover of the album is an optical illusion that, at a glance, appears to ripple.
STANDOUTS: "Bluish" floats along like the Zombies on an acid bender. The song has dizzying harmonic verses, a falsetto chorus and a steady haze of synthesizers.
FANS DIG: Happenings, man
ANDY SAYS: Animal Collective's music has the trappings of cult genius: Deftly layered synthesizers and guitar, abstract lyrics about a lion in a coma, psychedelic arrangements. I'm not in this particular cult, though. The group loops sounds to the point of irritation. Some songs rise out of the sonic muck, but too often, the album sounds distracted by itself.
GRADE: C-plus
Andy Rathbun
arathbun@heraldnet.com
425-339-3455
Animal Collective
WHY CARE? Animal Collective dreamed up its ninth studio album as a batch of songs meant to be played outside, then gave it the same name as an outdoor concert venue designed by Frank Gehry.
TRIVIA: The cover of the album is an optical illusion that, at a glance, appears to ripple.
STANDOUTS: "Bluish" floats along like the Zombies on an acid bender. The song has dizzying harmonic verses, a falsetto chorus and a steady haze of synthesizers.
FANS DIG: Happenings, man
ANDY SAYS: Animal Collective's music has the trappings of cult genius: Deftly layered synthesizers and guitar, abstract lyrics about a lion in a coma, psychedelic arrangements. I'm not in this particular cult, though. The group loops sounds to the point of irritation. Some songs rise out of the sonic muck, but too often, the album sounds distracted by itself.
GRADE: C-plus
Andy Rathbun
arathbun@heraldnet.com
425-339-3455
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