Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavilion is an aural trip into space. No, I don’t mean outer space, although the sounds present on the band’s ninth studio album seem to exist outside of the earth’s gravitational pull. Space, the approximation of depth on a sound recording, is likely the band’s primary concern on this record. An insert featured in the vinyl edition even explains the band’s career-long aspiration to create ‘music that would be deserving of an amazing outdoor listening experience.’ The record’s production not only convinces listeners that the songs would sound great outside, but actually sounds as though the band is performing in some other, unmarked region while being broadcast through your stereo system. Using vintage reverbs, tilt-a-whirl electronics, and time-tested mixing techniques, the album transports listeners to a distance far from whatever cold recording studio may have been host to its sessions.
Of course, listening to soundscapes and appreciating how sounds are sculpted and manipulated into something palatable can interesting for only so long. Fortunately, writing great pop melodies to keep their audience engaged while admiring the sonic landscapes they’ve constructed is also a large part of their agenda with Merriweather. Animal Collective succeed in making dense, harmony-rich songs that make the aural spaces they’ve created a place that humming and singing along are mandatory. ‘My Girls’ may be the record’s most infectious tune as the vocals fluctuate between wide-eyed hopefulness and subtle melancholy. With Merriweather Post Pavilion, Animal Collective have proven themselves to be at the forefront of progressive pop, as deadly with their textures as they are with their melodies.
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