New Release Tuesday: Animal Collective

Before we go in to the proper write up for this album, I must make my first ever retraction. In the 15 years I have been some sort of journalist (I have been writing for some sort of something since the 5th grade - really), I have never made any sort of retraction of my opinion before. This is a first.

Remember awhile back when Animal Collective announced their new album was going to be called Merriweather Post Pavilion and I took to the blog to just shoot excrement all over the idea that they named it after a venue in Columbia, Maryland that I frequented much as a child. I also took out my anger on them because I just didn't get the hype, even though "Brothersport" was a song that I hated to admit I enjoyed, a guilty pleasure trapped in my head. And then one day a few weeks ago, I took a gamble and just started playing their albums from start to finish. And this brings me to say I am sorry. Like the great Damn Jinx Short told me this morning: "You are a big man, Rusty, to admit when you are wrong."

It was a hipster Christmas miracle, when many message boards had posted that MPP had leaked. After falling in love with the pulse-inducing trance that was "Brothersport", "My Girls" was the next song the world was given a chance to preview, and it wasn't catching me as quickly. But over time, as "In The Flowers" opens the ninth Collective record and segues in to "Girls", it completes the trifecta that is the highlight of the album.

I remember saying in the abovementioned diss piece that I do enjoy Panda Bear's Person Pitch. Maybe that is why songs like "My Girls" and "Brothersport" are so good since he is the vocal force behind them, if not even more. But that doesn't mean songs where Avery Tare take the mic, like "Flowers" and "Summertime Clothes" aren't something to miss. And I guess I would be ignorant to not mention the other member, Geologist, and his ability to make a good portion of the music exist. And after familiarizing myself with the majority of the band's catalog, from the immaculate Campfire Songs through Merriweather, you see that everything before this was building up to this exact moment. Merriweather is the band picking the favorite pieces of their catalog and piecing it together for an original album full of their greatest hits. I wouldn't mind if they would strip it down and get back to something more akin to Sung Tongs eventually.

I have only made it through the album front to back but once, but plan on spending more time with Side B in the future. Again, my bad, I'm sorry, I was a bad journalist/blogger. Ever care to forgive me?

Buy: Merriweather Post Pavilion [here]