Ecstatic Schizophrenic

Merriweather Post Pavilion
Animal Collective
Domino, 2009
4.5 stars

Watching Animal Collective’s progression over the last few years has been like watching a difficult, misunderstood schoolkid grow into a well-adjusted, creative young adult. Where their early stuff often involved making beautiful organic experimental songs out of rough, animalistic sounds, Merriweather is a polished gem of danceable, summery psychadelic pop. More accessible, and less sickly sweet than last year’s Strawberry Jam, Merriweather borrows the layered Brian Wilson-esque vocal harmonies of Panda Bear’s wonderful Person Pitch LP, melding them with some great ‘90s synthetic beats and samples to create something different again. My Girls and Bluish are two amazing tracks amongst an album full of them – both so dense and unabashedly joyous you can’t help getting carried away by the vibe. And album closer Brother Sport is the perfect ecstatic, schizophrenic closer. Merriweather is an Animal Collective album (possibly the first) without any of the tough bits, and the perfect summer soundtrack.

Artwork: A
As a mate said, the artwork matches the album perfectly - trippy as hell. My shitty hand-drawn rendition doesn't have the same effect, but it's worth checking out the original - here.

Published in mX, Thursday January 15, 2009.

The Best of 2007

10.
The Grey Goose Wing - Kes
An unpredictable mix of acoustic freak folk, bird calls and recorder solos, this would be a truly experimental record if it weren't for the handful of true pop gems scattered throughout. Kes is a small man with a big heart, and The Grey Goose Wing is a strange and fascinating trip.

9.
Future Suture - Ned Collette
Somebody, get this guy a hobby - at the rate he's releasing these great albums he'll peak in his late 20s and be the subject of a bad covers album by the time he's 35. Future Suture is a more ambitious album than last year's debut, but it's every bit as good.

8.
Everybody - The Sea and Cake
Often touted as a "post-rock supergroup", this should be the album to finally peel off that label - these Chicago natives are the thinking man's pop collective, and Everybody sees them at their best. Sparkling, understated guitar pop for the backyard barbecue set.

7.
Liquorice Night - Sly Hats
Only in Melbourne could an awkward young bloke with a penchant for op-shop woollies and calypso rhythms run away with the local release of the year. Sweet like a high school love note, and as recklessly sincere as a confession scratched into a toilet cubicle wall.

5. TIE:
Person Pitch - Panda Bear
and Strawberry Jam - Animal Collective
Noah Lennox was another busy boy in 2007. Early in the year he gave us his third solo album as Panda Bear, a great mix of Brian Wilson-esque pop and campfire dance-folk. Most performers would be happy putting out one masterpiece in a year, but somehow Noah also found time to hook up with the other Animals and cook up their best and most accessible record to date. They've said that they wanted this album "to sound the way strawberry jam looks", and they've absolutely nailed it - Jam is sticky, full of strange pips, and packed with enough sugar to induce fits in small children.

4.
There The Open Spaces - Sleeping States
The thing about "sleep albums" is that you never get to hear the end of them - if they do their job, you're fast asleep by the time track 3 rolls around. This would be the perfect sleep album, but it's so damn gorgeous that I just have to stay awake to hear the whole thing.

3.
Mirrored - Battles
Prog rock for Terminator-obsessed maths geeks. The sound that comes from inside a 486 computer running a hundred programs at once - turbo button pressed in - amplified and multiplied. Difficult to explain, but equally difficult to take out of the CD player.

2.
You, You're A History In Rust - Do Make Say Think
With each release these Canadians seem to take another step away from the studio and delve deeper into the backyard. Their sound hasn't exactly changed, it's just become part of the garden, beautifully overgrown. Rust is rich and organic - jazz-infused post-rock at its best.

1.
In Rainbows - Radiohead
Not content simply with having changed the way we listen to music, these guys decided to change the way we buy it too. The fact that the album was brilliant became an aside - after bending the rock genre as far as it would go without snapping, Radiohead finally delivered OK Computer an unpredictable, well-mannered genius of a little brother. Album of the year by a long shot.

Published in mX, Thursday 20 December 2007.

No Preservatives

Strawberry Jam
Animal Collective
Domino, 2007
4.5 stars

The opening track of Animal Collective's sixth studio album starts out like a Magic Eye pattern; initially just a confused static of computer blips and noises, it quickly shifts into focus to form a bouncy electronic trance that throbs away in the background for most of the 40-plus crazy minutes to come. Bubbles of noise, animal yelps and accidental vocal harmonies swirl in and around electronic samples and tribal percussion to form nine equally confusing and intoxicating chapters, including Fireworks and Cuckoo Cuckoo - two of the best and most accessible tracks these guys have released to date. Strawberry jam? Perhaps - this is more like a sugar-drenched conserve made from the poison-sprayed blackberries growing over the back fence of the vacant block next door. Get into it.

Artwork: B+

Published in mX, Thursday 13 September 2007.