Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
By Nick Manteris · 6 Comments · Leave a Comment
The cover art on this album is a great optical illusion that, if Wikipedia is to be believed, is based on the works of Japanese psychologist Akiyoshi Kitaoka. This illusion is what originally caught my attention and I can say, without reservation, that it is the best thing about this album. In addition to labels like “freak folk,” “psychedelic,” and “experimental,” Animal Collective are described as being “avant-garde.” They’re definitely experimental and I don’t know much about psychedelic (as a music genre) or freak folk, but using the term avant-garde to describe them is abhorrent.
Usually when I’m planning to write a review about an album I will do some research about the band and the album as I listen for the first time. If the album is bad I almost always abandon my research to focus on something that I feel more passionately about. It’s difficult for me to write about things that don’t elicit a positive response and I’m not interested in writing snarky reviews just because I’m a critic. This time, though, while actively disliking this album, I noticed that the “professional” reviews (see below) were all overwhelmingly positive. And this is how I discovered what is probably the biggest current conspiracy in the music world…or the “indieverse” as one reviewer described it. This is epic, people…it’s the “Emperor’s New Clothes” of our generation. Someone released an unlistenable album that is receiving universal acclaim.
Most of these reviews refer to the band members by their alter egos casually, with a familiarity that allows phrases like “Panda was smitten” or “Geologist piles on the pulses.” And – just in case Animal Collective isn’t also paying you off – the names that they use are Avey Tare, Panda Bear, Deakin and Geologist. (I’m joking about the payoff, by the way…there’s no way the band could afford to bribe so many music reviewers.) Another common theme in these reviews is the declaration that this is the best album of 2009…and I realize it’s only January, but surely another album (any other album!) must have been released on the same day.
- Score
- 17%
Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavilion is the worst album I have ever forced myself to listen to and I honestly did not find a single thing to like about their music. I’m only writing about it now to expose this travesty of groupthink. To further that purpose, here is a partial list (in alphabetical order) of the professional reviewers (that you can no longer trust!) and their scores:
- About.com: 5/5
- Allmusic.com: 4.5/5
- Cokemachineglow.com: 85%
- Drowned in Sound: 9/10
- Entertainment Weekly: A-
- Guardian.co.uk: 4/5
- NME: 8/10
- Noripcord.com: 9/10
- Pastemagazine.com: 91 (phenomenal)
- Pitchfork: 9.6
- Prettymuchamazing.com: 8.5/10
- Rateyourmusic.com: rated #1 for 2009 (at the time of this review)
- Rolling Stone: 3.5/5
- Slantmagazine.com: 5/5
- Spin: 4/5
- Tinymixtapes.com: 4.5/5
- Uncut.co.uk: 5/5
what!
this album rocks!
Fri, 11/27/2009 - 22:27 · Fan1