Evolution can be a bitch. The first mutation will almost certainly be awkward, uncomfortable, and only around for a short time. But their genes get past down, the awkwardness fades, the edges blur, and a seemingly new entity will be created from very disparate forms.When a musical wall is broken down, more often than not it is done in a crude manner and will only be memorable as a curiosity. (See: the thudding "Walk This Way" and it's broadly obvious video.) But while Aerosmith was never going write a great (or even good) rap song, a lot of the kids they turned on to Run-DMC never looked back and Hip-Hop became just as much a touchstone for that generation as Rock was - in some cases more so. That generation never knew a world without Rap, Hip-Hop, Electronica, etc… so they never had to Frankenstein together a song like the like the Toxic Twins; it all came naturally since the myriad of styles were encoded in their brains.
And now here we are in 2009 and Animal Collective has released this amazing record. There are sounds on this record that any half-hearted student of pop music could recall hearing elsewhere, but they way they are combined is totally and completely original. Beatles and Beach Boys harmonies, the sing-song repetition of hip-hop, Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd psychedelia, the bass tones of funk, the synthesizers and atmosphere of the late 90's electronica... oh, it's all here, but unlike any such previous effort it feels effortless and organic. They aren’t striving to combine genres, they using all the items in their artistic toolbox to communicate – it really is their version of soul music.
It’s also their most cohesive record to date. Where as previous go-rounds had highs of the highest high, they also had their share of unmemorable tracks; a regrettable side effect of proficiency (eight records in nine years!). But there’s no fat on Merriweather Post Pavilion, which is surprising since it clocks in at 55 minutes and is their longest since their debut. That hour will go by in a flash though, since this is one of the most expertly sequenced records to come out in the digital age. There’s a reason why Radiohead almost broke up over the sequencing of OK Computer: form matters.
And Animal Collective have become masters at it, and not just the order of the tracks, either. Each song is perfectly calibrated without seeming calculated. As the slow burning sadness of opener “In the Flowers” gives way to the giddy rush of domestic happiness of “My Girls” the record’s theme of simple pleasures begins to emerge. The details of life are the focus of the lyrics (going for a walk in “Summertime Clothes”, a lover’s curls in “Bluish”) but the music is made for an amphitheatre. The tension between these extremes could tear the songs apart but instead it strengthens them: the intimate details ground the widescreen sounds to earth, while the grandiosity of the music elevates the minutia of a daily routine to transcendence.
To embrace and cherish all of the qualities of life, from the mundane to the mysterious, is what Animal Collective are after here - just as they have assimilated almost all forms of musical communication to do it. We’re only three weeks in to 2009, so I can’t say if this is the best album of the year, but if there is a better one I’ll be very, very surprised.
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P.S. Despite the idea's seeming uniformity, The Flaming Lips are not the ideal reference point to bring to mind when discussing Merriweather Post Pavilion, since they never achieved artistic lift-off in the way that Animal Collective have here. Transmissions from the Satellite Heart was too loose to cohere that band's best bits, and The Soft Bulletin was too heavily indebted to the sound Dave Fridmann imported from Mercury Rev to really qualify as 'their' breakthrough moment (See also: each of their subsequent releases).
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