January 8th, 2009 3:39pm
Did You Download Animal Collective’s “Merriweather Post Pavilion” or Grab it on Vinyl? Is it Best Album Ever?
On Monday, on Pitchfork’s very first day back after the holiday break, they bestowed a BNM/9.6 on Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavilion, and effectively kicked the excitement about this record up from its already unprecedented levels to somewhere well beyond ZOMGWTFBBQ.
The anticipation for this record has been the most intense I think I’ve ever seen — I mean, remember how the band’s e-mail was hacked?! And Exhibit B: according to Flavorwire, on the ateaseweb message boards, there are nearly 1100 pages on Merriweather. Not posts. Pages. Plus, today, MTV reports that the album could break onto the Billboard charts next week from vinyl sales alone (CD/Digital release isn’t until 1/20).
Of course, on Monday I also noticed backlashy rumblings starting to crop up. You’ve got to figure, just as the record sets up to be the most hyped and anticipated release of recent memory, the potential for it to get the hugest backlash grows equally.
But I just can’t stop thinking about how the album only leaked 2 weeks ago; the vinyl only came out on Tuesday. And everyone seems to have made up their minds about it already. What’s everyone going to think about the record a year from now, when List-Making Season rolls back around? What’s everyone going to think about the record 6 months from now? A month from now?
Anyone have any thoughts? Does it mean something when Pitchfork, in the review of 2009, gives a record a rating higher than it gave in the whole of 2008? Have you downloaded Merriweather or bought the vinyl, and given it a good listen? What do you think?
(and be sure to set aside a solid 15 minutes to play our Merriweather Post Pavilion Game.)
1/8/09 3:58 pm
Charles says:I downloaded it when it leaked over the holidays, and I bought it on vinyl when it came out Tuesday. Actually, I can usually identify with the people who are haterz at overhyped stuff, but in this case, the praise is really well deserved. I actually even agree with the Spin review that says the band is sort of starting to evoke the Dead’s “quest for ecstatic release,” as crazy as that sort of sounds.
1/8/09 4:00 pm
n-yo says:overhyped hipster garbage
1/8/09 4:28 pm
josh says:I downloaded the digital release (no record player). The praise is well-deserved. It reminds me of their show at Coachella and how happy I was after a day of crowds.
1/8/09 4:32 pm
Ade says:I’ve managed to stay away from the leak and am holding out to pick up the CD I pre-ordered on monday, but i heard it once at a listening party in December and it certainly seemed worthy of all the hype.
1/8/09 4:44 pm
Carl_The_AZN says:It’s good but Panda Bears new album coming out later this year is gonna be even sicker
1/8/09 4:53 pm
TRMW says:I think the praise is pretty justified. These are some of the best songs they’ve written, and the production is deep and gorgeous. I hear you on how crazy fast people make up their minds these days, but I guess I just chalk it up to the general acceleration of culture.
1/8/09 5:12 pm
scott pgwp says:This is how I say “ZOMGWTFBBQ” in my head:
Zom-Guh-What the Fuck! “barbecue sauce” (the latter part sung like in the Chile’s babyback ribs commercials).
It almost kinda sounds like an Animal Collective song in my head.
1/8/09 5:14 pm
bryan says:The album really is amazing. I ended up listening to it about 10 times in 2 days after I downloaded it. If you listen to it enough it starts to sound like meditation at a carnival or something. It can be really scary if you listen to it too many times in a row. But it’s a good kind of scary. An exciting kind.
1/8/09 5:19 pm
JD Plotz says:AC are the first truly “21st” century band (i know what you’re thinking, but Radiohead are a “end-of-the-20th” century band)
1/8/09 5:22 pm
Laird says:I downloaded when it leaked on xmas, then bought the vinyl on Tuesday. I’m in love. Not even a big AC fan before this, but it totally lives up to the hype.
calling it “overhyped hipster garbage” is a rather sad attempt at one-upping pretentiousness.
1/8/09 5:38 pm
Matthew Perpetua says:I keep thinking that if the current version of the internet existed in the 80s, a similar sort of excitement would’ve been focused on Daydream Nation. But then, Sister, my favorite Sonic Youth album, would become analogous to my least favorite Animal Collective album, Strawberry Jam. Nevertheless!
1/8/09 5:45 pm
Ryan Catbird says:Yeah, I think if they weren’t already considered to be a “huge” band, then they certainly are now, unquestionably. I don’t think that Sonic Youth analogy is far off at all, Matthew.
1/8/09 7:37 pm
Jack says:I’ve so far held out, as hard as it is with the hype surrounding the album, now I’m just waiting for the CD release. AC are touring the UK during my exam period, it’s a shit feeling cause I’m guessing they’re at their peak at this moment in time, the next time they get to the UK I may have missed the best…
1/9/09 8:23 am
Andy says:I think MBV should go print. Fuck this internets shit.
1/9/09 8:55 am
Ryan Catbird says:Yeah, I’ll get on that as soon as we record us on 78, 8-track, and reel-to-reel, 3.5″ floppy, and VHS.
1/9/09 8:56 am
Ryan Catbird says:and also MBV: the Intellivision game
1/9/09 1:18 pm
Matthew says:I preordered the vinyl from insound
they ran out/my record was delayed
so i downloaded it (no patience)
and have been listening constantly
since wednesday night
it is by far their most developed work as a band.
honestly, i think it sounds like the future of pop music
universal digital tribal jams out to the past for presents sake
plus, avey and panda’s harmonies on this record
are FUCKING amazing
i dunno.
hype is hype
but if they are selling records
globally
and almost making billboard charts
with VINYL alone (a ‘dead’ medium i remind you)
maybe they deserve every ounce of praise
this album will earn them
1/9/09 4:03 pm
dob74 says:I don’t get the kids these days. AC reflects that the new generation has not found a voice of its own, forced to resort to perpetual referencing of their grandparents discredited hippy bullshit…very sad indeed.
1/9/09 4:32 pm
Matthew Perpetua says:Eh, they — the generation, that is — reference their grandparents’ discredited punk bullshit too, right? All kinds of bullshit shot through a prism.
1/12/09 2:25 pm
Michael Brett says:OK, let the brickbats fly. I do not get Animal Collective. At all. I consider myself very open-minded about music. But I’m also a huge, huge, huge fan of professionalism.
In short, AC is unprofessional to me. In that regard, I totally get the Dead reference.
Like the Dead, I believe AC is formed a community of listeners that get IT. And that’s great. I definitely like niche-type music nobody else is really into.
Hmm…maybe I should have started from the beginning with this- I actually think the reception of this album is reflective of a larger problem with ‘indie’ music. If the ‘indie’ community already creates a Godhead for an album only a week old, when will the strip-mining happen? When will the inevitable, “God, these guys used to be really cool-now they suck” happen. Next week?
In short, can’t we appreciate something for what it is, in the now? And not just see as a totemic leviathan which those of us who don’t get it fear will lead us to be beaten with a bone?
Music is fluid and has existed forever. Just like it irritates me to the nth degree that Pitchfork starts its best albums of all time list in 1978, it bothers me when older rock cranks sneer at everything post-punk as a repeat. Nothing is really new. So if nothing is really new, can’t we stop the ass-sniffin’ search for what is cooler ‘right now’? Because what is cooler ‘right now’ is very rarely still cool a decade later.
But if anything, I wish to be educated. Let me know if I’m wrong.
And Laird, I don’t think believe that ‘overhyped hipster garbage’ is pretentious. It’s valid criticism. If you don’t agree with it, argue against it. But I don’t believe it reflects pretentiousness. I think the ultimate sign of pretentiousness is those sneering at someone’s taste in pop music when the sneerer never heard the Monks. Or The Rascals. Or Fats Domino. Everyone needs to educate themselves before we cast aspersions on others. Know your history = respect your art.
1/14/09 10:45 am
George Pettis says:This is one of the greatest albums recently released, and also one of the greatest I have ever heard.
My first thought when listening to it was that there is a recent activity of Pet Sounds imitators in indie music and I was getting annoyed at all these bands that deny Brian Wilson’s influence on their music yet completely borrow from his melodies and harmonies. Animal Collective, however, and especially Panda Bear, have stated on record a few times that the Beach Boys are major influences of theirs, and on this record it really shows.
My process with this album was comprised of three stages, first, I downloaded the live preview that was floating around(amazing), then, I downloaded the album when it was leaked over the holidays(incredible) and finally I purchased the vinyl when it came out on Tuesday(yay!)
I have listened the shit out of of this album, and I am still being surprised. It’s that kind of devotion to their craft that makes Animal Collective the greatest indie rock band of this century hands down. With every release, there is an upward movement in the quality of the performances and the songwriting.
In short, “Merriweather Post Pavillion” is a masterpiece and Animal Collective gives me a continual sense of hope in what indie music can be.
1/14/09 11:50 am
Laird says:@ Michael: “I think the ultimate sign of pretentiousness is those sneering at someone’s taste in pop music when the sneerer never heard the Monks. Or The Rascals. Or Fats Domino. Everyone needs to educate themselves before we cast aspersions on others. Know your history = respect your art.”
Agreed.
1/14/09 5:42 pm
Ben Fawkes says:Been listening to it for about 2 weeks now and I like it but to say its one of the greatest albums ever or to even label it as the album of the year already is a little drastic. The production is great and there are 3 or 4 stand out tracks that I always revert to but there’s also some turd in their too – at the end of the day everyone is welcome to their opinion but the hype bands get these days for making something that is better than watered down shit doesn’t mean it can instantly be justified as a great album – I think there should be a rule where you have to put a supposed “great” album against the bench mark of actual “great” albums before you make outrageous statements. I appreciate why people are heralding it, it is very different which is refreshing and makes me come back to it; but there is a thin line between style over substance and sometimes AC do dabble in stylistic masturbation.
Like the harmonies tho and i’m all about getting rid of the guitar, fair play to them.