Merriweather Post Pavilion

Sometime gives me vibes of Coldplay meets 21 Pilots. Not bad definitely more background music. Wouldn't mind listening to more.

Headphones don't do this album justice. It's weird and experimental and I really appreciated how layered the songs were. There's always like a ton going on. When i listened to the album again on my sound system, it really opened my eyes to how great it is. A "close your eyes and vibe" kind of experience.

Merriweather Post Pavillion is an album that didn't do anything for me. I have never heard of this band so i didn't know what to expect so i did kinda expect it to be on the weirder end and i was correct. The main issue with this album is that the songs feel confused as if they are just trying so much because they just don't know what they want to be. In some cases the weirdness works against the album too as there were points where the album could be grating to listen to. And it's a shame too because beyond that, i can tell Panda Bear, Avey Tare and Geologist are good musicians but it never feels like they are on the same page most of the time. I feel like this album could have been so much better but it just doesn't do it for me. Best Song: Summertime Clothes Worst Song: Lion In A Coma Side note: I think the album art is kinda cool with it's optical illusion going on, its just as trippy as the music videos too.

The album art alone being an optical illusion is an automatic 3-star. But this album is great.

It was really good sort of chill background noise. Ultimately means it's generally forgettable and nothing special, but it was good for what it was.

Mediocre at best. The best thing of this was that I used to live near Meriweather Post Pavilion.

This list already included a few albums categorized as “experimental” or “psychedelic". Some of them are true masterpieces - and then there is Animal Collective’s “Merriweather Post Pavilion". Sound collages can certainly be effective in the right context, but on their own, they tend to get boring after a while. Animal Collective take it even further and simply produce 54 minutes of sonic garbage. The five guys probably aren’t bad musicians at all, but even a few off-key notes would likely have made “Merriweather Post Pavilion” more interesting. That’s what I call refined boredom - and without ever giving the impression that it might get any better! A technically flawless belly flop!

Shout out to Baltimore! First things first, “My Girls” is a 5 star jam, a near perfect song. The rest of the album has some other fine songs but also some that are a slog to get through

Interesting, more so than I expected. Might be coming back to this one. Love the Maryland connection. That was a treat. Maybe that's skewing my judgement...

Ugh

Boring

- I first listened to this album at the request of a boyfriend from about 10 years ago (when the height of romance was making a Spotify playlist for your new love). the relationship only lasted three months, but the musical influence this otherwise random person who suddenly entered and exited my life had on me has continued into present day - someone commented on the youtube video for Animal Collective's "Oddsac" visual album "this is like the acid trip I never had," and it's an accurate description of their entire catalog, as far as I can tell: so many sound effects; layered textures; strange lyrics that are nonsensical at times, yet simple ("I want to walk around with you, just you, just you, just you...") - the thing on my mind while listening is that this is a collaborative effort between 3-4 people who were friends making music together throughout their early years, according to the group's wikipedia page. creating something this experimental and unconventional feels like a vulnerable process that exposes a lot of yourself and the weirdnesses of everyone's brains throughout the songwriting process -- and if it never takes off in popularity with listeners, it's just ~weird~ and not "[wandering] the territorial edges of music, scoping out where boundaries had been erected and looking beyond them" (per Pitchfork's review of this album) - I imagine you have to have a lot of confidence to create and present this music to others to break past the "wtf is this" barrier at 10 monthly listeners and trust it will turn into "wow, what is this" at 10,000 monthly listeners - two things stand out to me the most from a musical standpoint: 1. the inclusion of organic-sounding (or organic-mimicking, more accurately) sounds like water droplets, jungle and summer bug sounds, short inhales, babbling brooks or bubbling fountains, and other (supra)natural features 2. for most of the album, it's not entirely clear what instrument is producing which sound. only in a few places could I identify a piano (the little run in the chorus of "Bluish" and the chords in "Guys Eyes"), but the rest are an unidentifiable mix of percussive sounds and different synth(?) tones that range from flutelike to videogame sound effects to droning bass and so many other textures and shapes - either way, I greatly enjoyed the relisten and the sonic experience this time around. "acid trip I never had" is still a strong description, and I'm happy to have taken this mini-trip into the limits of what music can be once again

4/5. One of the essential indie albums of the 2000’s. Its production is so dense that it can sometimes overwhelm the senses, like on the opener “In the Flowers” once the instrumental fully kicks in. At points it almost feels like if the Beach Boys were a synth-pop group. However in all that chaos, there is a lot of beauty to be found in this album once you approach it on its own terms. Whether that be the catchy insanity of “Summertime Clothes” or the slower burn of “No More Runnin.”

It’s ok, but not necessarily my vibe completely. There’s a high treble thing going on with a synth or something that I actually find kind of grating.

I listened to it this morning, and I can’t remember it now. I do remember thinking that it was the sonic equivalent of a recurring nightmare.

Little drawn outfor my taste

1. 4.5 2. 5 3. 3.5 4. 4 5. 3 6. 4 7. 3.5 8. 3.5 9. 4 10. 4 11. 5

Aged well, good balance between pop hooks and mad experimental sounds. Hangs together as a coherent album, first 4 tracks hit a peak that it can't sustain for the whole record but I don't hate any song. Brother Sport as a closer, mental track, love it. My Girls remains an all time banger, unreal. 8/10

this album while good is extremely forgettable i'd give it three but cover is very fun so its a 4

Brauch ich nicht hören. Hab ich auf Platte. Liebs.

😐

i don’t care about material things like *checks notes* a social status

I don't know if this is good or bad, but I did not enjoy it.

I'm very biased here, and it might be my nostalgia talking, but I love animal collective. The electronic experimental sound resonates with me often, and the offbeat rhythms are interesting and unique. I do think strawberry jam is a better album than this, but I still appreciate this one.

This is the music I would play at my upper-middle class party at my loft in downtown Portland. It has the sound of an indie band but features modern techno samples and arrangements. However, none of it combined to create something that sounded like music, but was instead more like experimental indie techno trip background music.

First impressions: pretentious electronic cacophony. Listened again because it kept reminding me of other things I like (close harmony vocals, psychedelic). Ended up liking it enough to round up to 4 stars.

I can't stand all this 2000s Brooklyn hipster shit. Just pure shit.

No doubt on why the chose such a trippy album cover, as this thing is incredibly trippy, psychedelic and surreal, with a heavy wall of sound created by electronics bathed in multiple effects, like a lot of delay, reverb or warble. While I do like myself some hypnotic neo-psychedelia, this record can be a bit too over-stimulating, reaching a point where a start to feel a bit dizzy and not in a pleasant way, all due to high amount of layers of very weird electronics following unconventional structures. The voices also contribute to that aspect, being very soft and inviting to get lost in the music, but not in the same level as the instrumentation. With that being said, I do still enjoy it. Perhaps it can get overwhelming at some point, but while it isn't, it still is a very hypnotic and psychedelic. In addition, it features some very catchy, memorable and even cute melodies, so the album is, overall, a very decent experience.

꩜ Transported backwards through time to the American Apparel on Queen St!! ꩜ I'm skipping past the annoying noises. Maybe I only liked "My Girls"? ꩜ It's just a lot of noises for me guys.

7/10 It's innovative and sounds very different to most other music. Very Beach Boys, I guess. At all times it's a hot, tinny mess - the tinniness does get too much and the music is clattering in to each other so much that you wonder if anyone is in control of it all. But when the clouds part, there are tunes and hints of pop wonderfulness. Does sound like F.U.N. though

I don’t know…two songs I really was spellbound by (My girls and Summertime Clothes) the rest were ok but mostly just reverby indie pop. Living in MD this is a vastly overrated album

At first I found it a little abrasive, but it really grew on me. Unusual rhythms and harmonies that kind of reminded me of the Beach Boys

I first stumbled upon Animal Collective 10 or so years ago. I got into them after finding the band Atlas Sound and briefly becoming obsessed with their lofi, spacey dreamlike approach to indie pop. I hadn't thought about either band for several years when something possessed me to listen to Logos by Atlas Sound for the first time in years again yesterday. I ended up on their wiki only to find out that Atlas Sound is the solo project of Bradford Cox the lead singer of Deerhunter , who I didn't know at all untill finding them through the generator a couple months ago. I rated that album 5 stars and have listened to it a bunch since. One of my favourite tracks on the Atlas Sound album features Noah Lennox on vocals. While listening yesterday I decided to do a little dive and found out Lennox, who also goes by Panda Bear, a super worthwhile project In it's own right, is in fact the founding member of Animal Collective. Finding this out, I put on Merriweather Post Pavilion and listened to it for the first time in years, feeling enlightened to have filled in the blanks of my musical knowledge on this niche genre and scene. Two hours later I decided to rate yesterday's album, when, to my surprise, Merriweather Post Pavilion is generated, about two hours after having just listened to the whole thing, completely out of the blue. On top of all of this, this album is the type of music that really gets into your head, planting itself into your waking dream state and making you contemplate the universe. Now I'm setting here trying to grasp what is real and what exactly is the meaning of life. At least it's got some good tunes to listens to while I do it!

Animal Collective have always been a band that I felt I should like as they’re psychedelic, experimental, and weird, which is exactly what I like in a band. I have tried to get into them several times in the past and, while I've never disliked what I heard, it never really stuck with me. However, something finally clicked while listening to Merriweather Post Pavilion today. Maybe it’s because I was listening with a more critical ear or maybe I’ve just finally heard it enough that I started to properly understand it, but either way I really enjoyed this this morning. It feels like a perfect psychedelic summer chill album and it makes me want to go smoke a joint and float down a river. Also, I really like the album cover and how it has been squirming around at the edge of my vision the whole time I've written this review.

So this is when the 2010s started

I can appreciate that it's something else, but I didn't enjoy it that much. It was just ok-ish.

Not the AC I would reach for, or really even put on this list.

This album is, arguably, the one that garnered this band the most attention. It struck while the iron was hot with Indie Sleeze in full swing the type of pop popularized by MGMT, Hot Chip, Pheonix were in the charts. And yet, though I love this album dearly, I feel that in its accessible nature, it loses some of what makes Animal Collective truly special. Dance worthy jams that amaze with their progressive techno freak folk like My Girls, Summertime Cloths, and Brother Sport, some of the more intimet songs don't have the same bleeding edge and cathartic rawness of AC's earlier or even in tandem releases (looking at you Fall Be Kind EP). This might be the height of the trajectory started with Strawberry Jam, and though this album encapsulated nearly the entirety of my 2009 listening, looking back, I find it is not the album I reach for in their catalogue. For me, Animal Collective is at their best when the music is a little bit more raw, a little less polished. Feels for instance exemplifies some of their finest achievements in terms of production, progressive song structure, and the kind of raw emotional pathos they bring to their music. Strawberry Jam is an album that builds towards Merriweather, but even songs like Revered Green or Fireworks harken more towards the sounds we find on Danse Manatee, etc. More to the point, somehow their impressive sonic layering seems to lose something when brought in with synthesizers. The masterfulness of Sung Tongs, which does use looping and samples, to me will always explify AC's, Avey Tare and Panda Bears, immense creative talent. And yet, a 5, because god damn if this album doesn't have some bangers.

Interesting in places but not written for folk of my ilk.

Has its moments but overall not a fan of how repetitive some of these tracks would get.

really didn’t get into any of their stuff before or after this, but this alone is one fantastic album

The best follow up possible after Hounds of Love. This pushed pop music ahead just as far as Kate Bush did decades earlier. There are sounds on this album which absolutely stagger me. I have no idea how they captured some of the weird, drippy glitches here and somehow managed to twist them all together into some of the most infectious and joyful bangers of this century. A wonderful experience, and a deserved masterpiece.

7/10 amazing start honestly i understand more now whats psychedelic

7/10 - I like it. But have never been able to love it. Will try listening again while reading the lyrics Heard before? --------–- ✅ Saved a new Song? ----- ❌ Saved Album? -------–-- ✅ Will Listen Again? ---––– ✅ Album Cover ----------– 1000/10

Have never been a fan. Don’t see that changing

A bit too experimental for today

Kind of sounds like MGMT covering my least favorite vampire weekend album

This annoyed me

I really didn't get this album when it first came out. I'd heard that it was like an updated Pet Sounds, and then balked at the harsh synths and lack of immediate melodic prowess compared to Brian Wilson. Over time, it's really grown on me, and the eccentricity, childlike glee of the music and synth work worm their way into my brain. Arguably, there is no Porter Robinson or Magdalena Bay without this album.

This album is fine, I could have died not listening to it.

As much as I'm generation Pitchfork, this isn't for me

An album so far ahead of its time. I couldn't make much sense of it at the time but now: wow

Yes!!! This album checks so many boxes. You can actively listen/analyze, you can sing along to the pop parts, or you can tune out and let your mind wander until you're lost in the flowers of it all. My Girls is an important song for me and my family and never gets old. Summertime Clothes is constantly playing in my weirdo head, "I want to walk around with you". While I personally prefer Strawberry Jam, there's not a damn thing wrong with MPP. Naysayers here should give this one another chance.

An album that pushes experimentalism while hewing to recognizable - and pleasing - song structure. I can see why they, and their various offshoots, inspired a bit of a cult-like following in the ‘00s. It doesn’t do a lot for me though, and a few days later no specific song sticks out.

There is creativity in the chaos which makes it fun. But I can't help be find it annoying at the same time

Sit Brian Wilson down. Have him listen to "Hurry Up, We're Dreaming" by M83 in it's entirety. Tell him he now has 48 hour to recreate it. This is the result you get. Lots of whimsy and flourishing melodic ideas dethatched from some conventional pop tropes like any sense of consistent percussion or a verse/chorus structure. But somehow with all the vocal hooks of a pop record. Some fun to be had, elite listening to some, hazy nothingburger to others. I'm not over the moon about it, but it's fun and very unique. "Daily Routine" was my favorite. Strong 3/5

If nothing burger was an album.

When this came out I was 18. Animal Collective were my favorite band going. I was embarrassed by this record. Because I hated it. It's just not at all where my head was at that age. Around that time I leaned heavily towards punk and garage and definitely not this. All of my favorite bands were putting out "bangers". Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Gossip, and now AC. I wasn't happy about that. Plus they're were a ton of Ani.al Collective wanna-bes. I needed to hear my boys do something crazy. Sonically it was so dense and cool. The lyrics were terrible. And very high in the mix. Very clean very audible. The worst people loved it. Now when I hear it- it's not bad. Not near as bad as I felt then. But damn I def still never like listening to it.

No

Didn’t care for it. Very loud. Eh. It’s ok. This one was fine as background music.

It’s not my favorite indie-experimental-electro-pop from Baltimore, but it’ll do. Yes, it’ll do quite nicely!

I was left very disappointed by this album. "Merriweather Post Pavilion" was the kind of experimental music I hate. The songs are better in 10-second segments, rather than the full 5-minute length. "Brother Sport" is the best track; shame it's at the very end of "Merriweather Post Pavilion". At least the album cover is cool. 2 stars for "Merriweather Post Pavilion".

My Girls

Strange album.

It's ok

Pet sounds meets the Flaming Lips. May be a five star after some more listens, but a solid 4.

Spiller for mig på alle de måder den vi havde for et par uger siden med Dirty Projectors ikke gjorde. Stor 4

Det her album cover var baggrundsbillede på min bærbare computer næsten hele vejen gennem gymnasiet

Now That's What I Call Rasmus-Core Vol. 1

Interesting album. Kind of like a modern take on "Pet Sounds" by the Beach Boys. Not a style of music I would reach for, but it wasn't terrible. 3/5 Probably won't listen again

The electronic indie vibes on this album are spot on at times, and in the first half of the record I thoroughly enjoyed it. The production was very layered and complex, but the tracks are constructed in a way to make each song feel coherent and well put together. I thought this was on its way to a very high score, but I sadly found the second half far less exciting than the first half. Strong 7/10 for me.

A really fun blend of a few things. There's something of the Beach Boys in there, but fused with more modern electronic elements along with the traditional instrumentation. It's fun, a bit different, and enjoyable.

Just listened recently actually. Was ok. Had a couple great tracks.

Seems to be a lot of hate for this album in the reviews. I don’t feel that this album is as grating, irritating, plain old boring, or just terrible as TOO MANY other albums on this list. it’s a 3 for me. Middle road stuff. But I don’t mind it.

It started off pretty well, echoes of early genesis with a touch of very early Yes. Then the noises started, I couldn't see the point of it. Despite the "experimental" noises it wasnt bad. It wasnt particularly good either it was a resounding ok. Needed a direction

Took a while to decide how I felt about this. Feels like it needs something - possibly drugs? Played this on my buds and it made my head quite swishy. It's trippy, a little weird, but doesn't do a lot. I don't mind it. It's okay, but I'm not sure I'd I'd listen again in a hurry.

Not really my kind of pop; the psychedelia aspect didn't do it for me. I did enjoy a few of the singles, but that was about it. Fun fact, I used to live five minutes from the Merriweather Post Pavilion. It's a cool concert space.

Yeah, I couldn't make it halfway through this album. I just gave up. All of the songs just started blending together and most were more annoying than anything resembling decent music. Big swing and a miss for choosing this album that everyone should hear before they die. Nope. 2.3 / 5 stars

Meh

Very cool, enjoyed a good bit of it but a couple of tracks were just annoying(?) I guess. I've heard some here and there at Urban Outfitters I imagine but still a really cool sound. Favorite Track: Also Frightened

hmm. track 2 was covered by tears for fears about 10yrs ago, one of my favorite artists ever so I am partial and must admit T4F version is way better. this album kind of all blends tg, not much personality btw the songs and these guys sound like a middle school chorus half the time, no strong singing anywhere..nothing distinct to make me remember them.

This album is a kaleidoscope. Each song changes its shape, creating new, fascinating images that bob and weave throughout. It shifted my perspective and played with my mood.

Interesting timing this comes up the day after Robert Wyatt. Artists that share an experimental/psychedelic approach that exists within their cultural moments as well as being just outside. Repetition and slow shifts of phase permeate both with AC also bringing beach boys harmonies and a heapin helpin o' reverb. Turns out actual musicians create more interesting journeys than loops and delay. Still worth a listen.

Całokształt raczej przyjemny, doceniam ogólny klimat. Jednak utwory są na tyle powtarzalne, że każdy staje się delikatnie męczący pod koniec. Poza tym, w wielu przeszkadzał mi jakiś jeden element, czy to efekt na wokalu, czy nieprzyjemna sekcja na którymś instrumencie, czy jeszcze coś innego. Pomimo tego nie wykluczam, że do niego wrócę.

I'll say this. At the end of this project I will have listened to ENOUGH electronic music to last a few lifetimes. If anything, I'm less impressed by it than I used to be, and today's selection isn't helping that. Dreamy, ethereal and repetitive, but not in good ways. This whole choral, echo-ey singing stuff gets really old, really fast and the whole record is a slog. It's way too long. Just another of the mediocre and boring (and heavily OVERREPRESENTED) electronic music that this list is exposing me to. (2/5)

Reminiscent of Cocteau Twins or Chemical Brothers, I'm mostly okay with letting this brand of atmospheric, ambient electronica wash over me, but the lack of highs and lows on this one leaves very little residue and I found it pretty forgettable after the experience. A second background listen, while equally tolerable, didn't exactly heighten or help the experience, nor did it convince me to round this up from a 2.5/5.

150. Merriweather Post Pavilion - Animal Collective (2009) 7.22.26 Variety: 2 Adequacy: 4 Listenability: 2 Uniqueness: 1 Emotionality: 1 = 2.0 INTRO To my knowledge I've never heard a second of music from these guys. I recognize the name as it popped up quite a bit in stuff I would read during an era where my interest in actually listening to new music was waning. I listened to so little new music during this time period that all the eclectic indie bands full of bearded white guys named after animals all started to run together in my head. Deerhoof, Wolf Parade, We Are Wolves, High Wolf, Wolf Eyes, Caribou, Dr. Dog, Fleet Foxes, Band of Horses, Deerhunter, The Dear Hunter, Deerhoof (did I mention them already? I can't remember), Deer Tick, Arctic Monkeys, Grizzly Bear ( ok, I have heard some of their stuff), Minus The Bear, Polar Bear, Freelance Whales, Weird Owl, An Albatross, Department of Eagles, Wild Beasts, The Sound of Animals Fighting.... You get the point. I could not tell you the difference between any of these guys. So this one will be a coin toss, looks like. "(I'm a dancer, I'm a dancer/ I'm a dancer, I'm a dancer/ I'm a dancer, I'm a dancer/ I'm a dancer, I'm a dancer/ I'm a dancer, I'm a dancer/ I'm a dancer, I'm a dancer/ I'm a dancer, I'm a dancer/ I'm a dancer, I'm a dancer/ I'm a dancer, I'm a dancer/ I'm a dancer, I'm a dancer/ I'm a dancer, I'm a dancer/ I'm a dancer, I'm a dancer/ I'm a dancer, I'm a dancer/ I'm a dancer, I'm a dancer/ I'm a dancer, I'm a dancer/ I'm a dancer, I'm a dancer/ I'm a dancer, I'm a dancer/ I'm a dancer, I'm a dancer/ I'm a dancer, I'm a dancer/ I'm a dancer, I'm a dancer/ I'm a dancer, I'm a dancer/ I'm a dancer, I'm a dancer/ I'm a dancer, I'm a dancer/ I'm a dancer, I'm a dancer)" THE TRACKS "In the Flowers" - We start with some electronic, psychedelic vibes which are pleasant enough. Very watery and dreamy atmospherics with some high register spaced out vocals over top. Around the midpoint when the bass explodes, it feels like the song is just getting started, but instead of going anywhere in particular we just fade back into the familiarity of the opening half, so that I feel like we just ended up walking in circles around a pretty enough, but very unkempt garden. Not terrible by any means but the whole song felt like a stretched out intro to some better idea that never develops. "My Girls" - More of the chill, friendly vibes that led straight from the last track, but this one has a bit more meat on the bones with the chant-sung lead vocals and the echoey, off timed backing vocals. The beat comes in early enough that we're able to finally find that branching path off the garden track. Turns out it was just obscured by too much undergrowth. Clearing it out is a bit of work though as there's a lot going on, and the forward momentum is slow. An improvement over the first track to be sure, but still a bit aimless. Already I'm seeing, if not sound-wise, then at least structure-wise this music might have a lot more in common with the repetitive nature of Trance music. "Also Frightened" - Much more trippy, psych feelings here with maybe a bi of Beta Band influence in the shaggy, tripping over itself momentum and the harmonies. This is all fine, but they seem like their whole strategy is to overwhelm you vibes at the expense of any actual melodies. Three tracks in and the formula is wearing thin. Maybe this will turn out to be more of a cohesive sound for the album, and less of a lack of interest in providing anything memorable to grab onto. "Summertime Clothes" - I like the alternating synth and bass drum beat on this. It kind of gives the effect that you're trapped in some sort of spinning carnival ride, pinned against the wall. The vocals are a bit reminiscent of some Vampire Weekend stuff I've heard, and there's a discernible core vocal melody. A vast improvement on the last few tracks. "Daily Routine" - Some memorable organ noodling don't do much to keep this track from spinning out into incoherence not too far into the run time. The vocals on this one got on my nerves as well. I've heard this exact overprocessed, multilayered earnestly delivered sort of thing enough over the last decade and a half to recognize that I don't care much for it. It's like they want to capture that late period Beach Boys sound, but are too cowardly to do it without all the electronic assistance. They are aiming for some sort of celestial, spacey comforting feel, but it comes across as more robotic and soulless to me. "Bluish" - We're fully submersed in the watery depths for this one, especially if the sound effects indicate anything. There's a Bjork-ish feel to the muted, wallpaper bass beat here that's nice, but then the sub-Shins level harmonies come in and play counter to the mood of floating through an underwater wonderland that I think they are going for. This would have been much more interesting as an instrumental. "Guys Eyes" - I did read one funny thing while listening to this and it seems very applicable here - a music journalist was quoted as saying that Animal Collective sounded like "two Beach Boys records [playing] at the same time". I'm not sure if they had this track in particular in mind when they penned that VERY accurate dig, but that's exactly what this felt like to me. And not even two of their good albums. "Taste" - The repetitive nature of the whole album finds itself represented in the microcosm of this one track. This was actually difficult to endure despite being one of the shorter run times. "Lion in a Coma" - Not even taking the questionable didgeridoo-esque opening of this into account, this one annoyed me. Maybe I've heard too much of the same pounding electronic bass by this point, or maybe it was the weaker vocal performance on this, but easily my least favorite track thus far. "No More Runnin'" - This is approaching something better. I like the slower pace, and the more low key approach. The repetition even works here as the simple ringing synth feels more incorporated into the tapestry the song is trying to weave, rather than at odds with it. Surprised to find a track this pleasant right before the endgame though. "Brother Sport" - Oof. More Vampire Weekend sounds here, but almost like a funhouse mirror version of that sound, widened out, and squashed into almost unrecognizability. That klaxon sound effect from round 1:40 - 3:15 was nigh intolerable. HIGHLIGHTS - "Summertime Clothes" - "No More Runnin'" MIDLIGHTS - "In the Flowers" - "My Girls" - "Also Frightened" - "Bluish" LOWLIGHTS - "Daily Routine" - "Guys Eyes" - "Taste" - "Lion in a Coma" - "Brother Sport" FINAL THOUGHTS I can't tell if this was front-loaded with mediocre tracks, or if it was mediocre throughout and it just wore on me enough to start to affect my patience by the end. I suspect the latter, but I think there was still enough promise of... something these guys were playing around with. They seemed to be doing exactly what they set out to do, and the production is of a high enough quality that everything feels purposeful and of a kind. I just happened to not like the mixed up vibes they were throwing down I guess. Ultimately though it was the repetitive nature of the whole thing. What seemed like a lot of interesting textures at first, soon became just an endless recycling of the same textures and elements into just slightly different shapes. I don't think this is music that's meant to trigger or even challenge listeners. In fact I think they really thought they were making a chill, upbeat, danceable bit of harmonious poptimism. This is music at odds with itself, and possibly the perfect sound for that person who wants the dissociative state of Ketamine but still wants to grind their teeth and jam out with some MDMA. I personally found it neither danceable nor chill. Well-intentioned fluff that missed the mark by a good margin. PLAYLIST ALTERATIONS - Can't imagine ever revisiting this, so... FURTHER LISTENING - 3 EPs by Beta Band - Django Django by Django Django - Oracular Spectacular by MGMT - Vampire Weekend by Vampire Weekend - Brian Wilson Presents Smile by Brian Wilson

This album is underwhelming. I am underwhelmed. To start, I have never heard of this act. They reside far outside my purview. So I know nothing of the context of this album beyond what Wikipedia can provide. Listening to it one gets the sense of bored kids at a computer sending messages back and forth and calling it a loop. I found the entire thing lifeless and lackluster. And all of that is before I read about how this album was met with universal acclaim. Who am I to argue with all the tastemakers? Well, I do. 1/5

This feels like the start of a very long album...and not only because the run time is an hour. I found sombr's favorite album. My Girls is catchy. The Neighbourhood probably owes these cats their career because if you told me this was one of their albums, I'd believe it. This album is uneven, some of it I like. Daily Routine is straight up awful. The overlapping lyrics on Guys Eyes make critics cream their shorts but it is distracting as hell. Today I learned what a jaw harp is. Brother Sport was one of the better songs to end on.

I like the beach boy vibes with modern sounds. Good music

This album was part Dream pop, indie rock, jam band and electronica. But somehow not in a bad way.

Boring. RYM: Y (#930) Saved a song: N

You ever get that feeling like you're floating in infinite nothingness Yeah that's what this album did to me Also the ceiling fan started to look funny

Pretty good, I didn't love it but well constructed and pretty listenable. 3.5

Unremarkable. Neither good or bad to me.

As with many albums, there were songs I disliked. And T&K coming in and saying a song I was loving was “weird” and “uncomfortable” was funny, but the amazing songs were AMAZING. Over all, this album was just fantastic and made me feel things I have not felt for music in a long time.

I like psych pop but this didn't click with me at all. 2/5

coolio

I am obligated as a millennial to give this 5 stars. In The Flowers, Also Frightened, Summertime Clothes and Lion In A Coma all classics. It is so funny that in My Girls he's like "listen I don't want anything fancy I hate material things - all I want is to own my own home". Psychadelic synth rock used to be a stable career path.

On the first song, I was skeptical. By the second song, I was intrigued. By the third song, I had moved to New York to start a new life.

Honestly, this album was kind of bland considering the band and the album art. I really liked Brother Sport and My Girls and Summertime Clothes was pretty decent, but otherwise it was a kind of forgettable album.

This sounds like music that would be popular with the 4-10 year old crowd.

high kommt das auf jeden fall nicht schlecht. nüchtern auch ganz gut stellenweise. glatte drei sternerinos

Love iy

I can appreciate that this is different and experimental, but it is pretty annoying - it’s whiny and repetitive. I’ll give them credit for a different sound, but this is not my jam. DNF (3)

Goddamn, this album defined the summer of 2009 for me. The opening bars put me right back into my tenement bedroom, sun pouring in the windows, pleasantly hungover. Cannot give this album anything less than 5 stars.

fuken hate this

5/10

It's utterly in love with itself and desperately wants you to love it too. As joyless as it is upbeat. Hipster folkie Dream Theater.

I thought this album was okay... There was nothing special to me, but it was actually really nice to listen to. I think an album of this length is really hard to listen to all the way through and actually keep your attention focused. I did catch myself losing focus at multiple points of the album, but again, it was nice to listen to. It was a very 'different' sound, with some tracks having a lot of reverb and effects, creating a dreamy sort of feel. There were no tracks that really stood out to me in particular, but I think as a whole, this album wasn't awful. I probably won;t take time out of my day to listen to this again, and I doubt there will be a time at all where I feel like i'm in the mood to listen to this, but it wasn't a terrible listen.

Tipico grupo de sonido extraño con vo sintética, malo, muy malo.

Ich benenne die Liste um in: Hunderte Alben, die du auf keinen Fall hören solltest! So ein Mist!

I guess this is experimental pop music? It’s like they forgot to blend the experimental components with pop music to make something that’s genuinely interesting. From the 2 minutes of reviews I read, people seem to agree that the track My Girls is the high point. Honestly, I thought it was so boring that I had to double check that the song I was hearing was in fact My Girls. This album seems to be built of ideas that no one took the time to finesse. This was beyond mid and I would not revisit.

Simply overrated. I can't even pinpoint what made this popular when it came out. It's like.. if someone took a good Tangerine Dream record and put it into a blender, and then strained all the interesting things out of it.

2.2 I listened to the first couple of songs, in the car with my family. That was a mistake; it seems like whenever I am with someone and listening to a selection of the list, they comment on how shitty the music is and how I am wasting my time, haha. This isnt as shitty as my wife thinks but its a tough listen. Her comment was why are there 3 songs playing at the same time. A weirder flaming lips? Kinda got a Brian Wilson vibe?

Very cool. Big fan. Reminded me of Beach House in the first half. 4.5 rounded down to 4. Favorite tracks: My Girls, Also Frightened, Daily Routine, Lion in a Coma.

Oh yeah. I'd save this to a soundcloud playlist in a heartbeat.

Excellent album. Holds up even when Im sober

2.5

Checked this out before listening, and on paper it sounded right up my street, but I bounced right off it. Maybe one to try again, down the road. Favourite track: Brother Sport

Either this gave me a headache or I had a headache already (more likely) but this wasn’t a pleasant listening experience

It's cool. I need to spend more time with it, which I don't know when that'll happen. Like almost sound collage-ish, multi-layered, poly-rhythmic, psychedelic. It's cool, just kind of a lot. I'll try to come back to it at some point in my life.

The culmination of Animal Collective's impressive mid/late-00's run of albums is the band at their most accessible and approachable. The melodies and hooks stick all without sacrificing their out-there and experimental production style. It sounds like uncanny valley Beach Boys playing from another dimension, with the bright vocal harmonies contrasted with washes of psychedelic noise. I remember at the time this album and the three prior were coming out I did not get this band. I thought it was all a bunch of noise and critic fodder. But I was still quite young. I definitely understand them now, although I still can't get into their pre-Sung Tongs stuff. That's just too much. Key tracks: My Girls Summertime Clothes Brother Sport

Thought I would like this more than I did. It's awful.

# Album Name: Merriweather Post Pavilion # Artist: Animal Collective # Rating: 2/5 # Comments: Honestly, literally one good song and thats it. Did not enjoy this album. # Top Tunes: My girls # Would I listen to it again? Just my girls

Un grupo único y genial. Beach boys con mucha, mucha psicodelia, sonidos del siglo 21, samplers, imaginación y talento. Aquí les tenemos en su mejor momento, con la formación al completo (solo Avey Tare ha estado en todos los discos) pero el peso lo lleva Panda Bear, de quien Person Pitch, publicado al mismo tiempo que Strawberry Jam, fue coronado junto a Merriweather como el mejor disco de su año al únisono. De Panda Bear tuvimos luego muchas cosas excelentes como Tomboy y sobre todo el exquisito Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper o el disco con Sonic Boom (Reset y Reset Mariachi EP) o Sinister grift. Aquí destaca , una de mis canciones favoritas de siempre: Girls, pero también In the flowers, Daily Routine, Summertime clothes, la luminosa Bluish con Avey a la voces, y el clásico Brother Sport". La portada una obra de arte.

Weird

Not at all familiar with Animal Collective before today. Some of the previous reviews for this album were concerning, and after listening I can see how this wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea. My take is that it feels like Vampire Weekend meets John Adams. John Adams the American minimalist composer that is... not the founding father. Minimalism uses repetition... lots of repetition.... lots and lots of repetition to create layers and textures of sound. The result if done right is music that has a nearly entrancing feeling to it. What's different here is that Animal Collective uses pop and world music elements to get the effect rather than classical music like John Adams. I think the end result here works. I like it... though definitely something I need to be in the right mood to listen to.

I thoroughly enjoyed this. It’s a woozy and jittery project that explores and experiments with so many cool psychadelic ideas throughout. I love the inventiveness being paired with plenty of earworm passages, forming a formidable tandem that brings these tracks to life. The lyrics I caught were intriguing as well and worthy of a closer look. The second half didn’t quite keep up the momentum of the first but was interesting nonetheless. An excellent display all-around and a great first impression, for me. I could see myself bumping this up after another listen or two. 1 listen Favorite Tracks: My Girls, Summertime Clothes, In The Flowers

Expectation: -> No clue what to expect. After listening: -> One of my more unusual listening experiences. Three days behind with this project as I continue to just put this on. Part because I like it. Part because I'm trying to understand it. I'm still not sure where I stand. The sounds are mostly pleasant but I cannot well describe the album nor the individual songs. I want to keep listening but it's time to move on. Track ranking: Girls Guys Bluish Frightened Daily Taste Brother Runnin Clothes Flowers

They managed to take everything I dislike about 60s music and modernize it. Pass.

Found this hard to go rate, I wanted to like it but it's just quite joyous and takes itself too seriously

This sounds like a bad acid trip I took in high school.

Reminds me of driving around my hometown, reminds me of walking thru the woods behind my high school, reminds me of getting into my first car and the seatbelt buckle burning my skin, reminds me of friends I don’t have anymore

I’ve tried listening to this several times over the years, and this time it hit more than others. I obviously don’t have nostalgia attached to it but it’s not as off putting to me as it used to be and was an enjoyable listen.

Sounds like if MGMT did even more drugs Strong 3

Best album of 2009 IMO. This is reminiscent of the beach boys Pet Sounds. This has lullaby like melodies buried in a cocktail of squishy and lush synths. Bluish is my favourite song on this record. But the whole thing is a gem of an album.

I've tried Animal Collective before and it's just to weird for me. Can't even say that I understand what it's going here, maybe I'm just too dumb...

the moving album cover freaked me out at 4am yesterday >:( this was a bit better than expected. very atmospheric and somewhat unique for this list.

Not for me. 1/5

I listened to this a bit when it was new. Really fun, creative album.

had a profound effect on me in high school

Really cool immersive sound. Love the timings of Daily Routine and Lion in A Coma. Love the sweet sound of No More Runnin.

So repetitive. Can't say this is my thing, so many other artists did electronic music better. Not outright terrible, just can't find anything to say that this is an important album to listen to.

Pretty good album. Definitely suffers from the perennial problem where albums from ~15 years ago suffer from being at the bottom of the curve - not yet new enough to feel modern and fresh, not yet old enough to experience a fresh re-evaluation without the accrued post-gunk of what it inspired in what's currently playing on the radio. It's definitely cool in vibe but lyrically a bit funny. I'm a big fan of over-applied reverb and sample-heavy orchestration but at times it does feel a little self-indulgent. A few recognizable indie-scene-popular singles amongst the record. I was pleasantly impressed by the commitment to the soundscape, and I liked the more subtle stuff off the tracklist. My Girls (the standout single) I didn't like anywhere near as much as one of the other less popular hits, Summertime Clothes. That said, when paired against the other ilk of the /mu/ canon it's got the energy but lacks the fun. This definitely seems like the kind of album that will benefit from a re-listen so that's probably in the cards at some point - maybe I just haven't peeled back enough layers yet? I gave it a couple listens and I went in with an open mind. But I didn't run into this issue with, say, Godspeed or Death Grips, which are both artists of similar indie ilk that require your attention and appreciation. Perhaps the whole psych-pop craze of the late aughts, while fascinating as a cultural and sonic relic, died as it was always meant to. Fav tracks: Summertime Clothes, Daily Routine

Weird and not very interesting

Not for me, Clive.

Never got going.

Muddled

Fine

Exhoey muddled mess with the dynamic range that makes it sound like it was recorded in a cardboard box. One of the very few albums which finished and started to repeat again & I failed to notice. Speaking of failing, this is apparently an experimental album - which is fine as most experiments fail = exhibit A right here folks.

This was one weird album, but there were some decent parts. I'd probably give it a 2.5 if possible. I enjoyed it too little to give it a 3.

The experimental nature of "Merriweather Post Pavilion" keeps the album shy of being pretty but dull, leaving it interesting without ever being truly compelling. Three stars. 1 "In the Flowers" (3/5) 2 "My Girls" (3/5) 3 "Also Frightened" (3/5) 4 "Summertime Clothes" (4/5) 5 "Daily Routine" (3/5) 6 "Bluish" (4/5) 7 "Guys Eyes" (3/5) 8 "Taste" (3/5) 9 "Lion in a Coma" (3/5) 10 "No More Runnin'" (3/5) 11 "Brother Sport" (3/5) Total - 35 Average - 3.18 349/1001 188/349 albums reviewed were new to me.

I see what the hype was all about. Sonically, this is Wall of Sound by way of late-Sixties Beach Boys by way of late-period Fab Four; If you instinctively skip the George Harrison sitar tunes on Beatles albums then you'll probably hate most of this. But I dig it, even though it has a little too much treble for my taste; the vibe is woozy and exciting but not too disorienting, with a good amount of buzzy energy. "Guys Eyes" feels like a *Surf's Up* outtake in the best way. This is the sort of thing Bob Pollard could've made in the Nineties if he hadn't been busy drinking away entire production budgets (or if he'd at least spent the money on better drugs). Figuring out what this album signifies is a thornier matter. For a band this capital-C Cool, some of the more overt bohemianism is unconvincing; it's hard to take "Taste" seriously coming from guys as fashionable as Avey Tare and Panda Bear, for example. But on the whole the sonic experimentation seems to free them to be sincere, whether they're feeling just straight-up lust (the erotically charged "Bluish") or something seemingly more prosaic but equally meaningful - the Millennial yearning for a house and a family ("My Girls"). "I wanna walk around with you" is as pure an expression of desire as you're ever likely to hear ("Summertime Clothes"). And when Bear declares on "Brother Sport" that "until you're fully grown you've got a real good shot" he's both encouraging the Peter Pan generation to move forward and explaining why we've tended to forestall that reckoning for as long as we can. *Yeah, we'll be middle-aged children but so what*, as Pollard would say.

Sure

It's junk like this that gives alternative rock/indie a band name. It's dull, repetitive, over produced noise. How it's in the main list baffles me. Didn't bothering finishing the album. The illusion art cover is a bit trippy.

(Light 7/10) Maybe AnCo are one of those artists I'm just never really gonna click with. That being said, this album is fairly enjoyable. Absolutely must hear with headphones on, any other way is not optimal as you don't quite get the same kind of immersion this music requires. The first half of the record is the strongest, with more discernible hooks and pleasant sonic textures that; despite the repetitious cyclical nature of the songs, do add up to something overall enjoyable. Unfortunately for me though after the song "Bluish" the album kinda enters unmemorable/annoying territory. I was not a huge fan of "Lion" or "Brother Sport" as much and "No More Running" felt very catatonic to me. I think this album is just waiting for a "right place, right time" kind of "a ha!" moment to finally click, but as with other AnCo albums I've tried before, this one felt like a lot of things happening all at once that sometimes by accident form enjoyable songs or moments. Absolutely peculiar album.

Beautiful sounds, forgettable songs. Might be better with repeated listens where familiarity enhances the enjoyment...

Fun optical illusion on the cover, but I don't care much for the music.

boring exchangeable early 10s (i guess these people were very early) electronic indie rock. DNF

Super interesting and very creative. I never really found a 'groove' with this.... ranking this a 4 anyways

Quality indie very wall of soundy at times. Summertime clothes and my girls are great songs.

I know this from its reputation as a smash hit in the indie world, which meant it was either going to be a slam dunk or a huge miss for me. Sadly it was the later. Really little that grabbed me.

Maybe this only makes sense to me, but it’s like the Beatles wrote a vaporwave album

Heheh, There's a review for this album on here that made me laugh. I'm not going to say which one; that'd be mean. Look, if you read what I've written, you'll realize i can barely piece two sentences together. I'm just writing this note so in the future when I see this, I can go find that review again and have a good time. Regarding the album itself, yea, it's good. I like it. It's definitely the most accessible Animal Collective album of the ones I've heard. Admittedly though, I haven't heard anything past this one. I listened to Sung Tongs a lot and some of the others and that was about it.

Cool expiremental sounds but didnt really enjoy listening to it all that much, just not really my thing. Really cool album cover.

I suppose I get it, but I don't love it.

3.5 favs: my girls, summertime clothes, brother sport

020626 20:15 3.5

This is a really good album, I knew one song before. After 5 or 6 listens most of the album is solid.

Such a cool, psychedelic, new agey indie album.

It's nice to see an album on the list that I grew up listening to, during its peak moment. I listened to a lot of Animal Collective in college in San Francisco. I was just getting into more alternative music from simply classic rock and punk rock, and starting to enjoy other genres of music, particularly experimental and "anti-rock" groups. SF was perfect for this around 2009, just before the techie explosion. Lots of small venues, house concerts, warehouse spaces, micro labels and record stores, and lots and lots of music swapping. Animal Collective was really popular in the scene and was historically a pretty wild band up to MPP: lots of sound manipulation, heavily reverbed and screaming vocals, lots of odd chord changes and tunings, and also fans of underground bands such as the Residents and Sun City Girls. This album really surprised people because it signaled a different direction for the band to make more poppy, amplified, arena friendly music. They were hinting towards it for a bit but I think at the time it was a wonderful transition. Alas, I feel that it's a wonderful effort if albeit atypical to what they're known for. See: Strawberry Jam and Feels. A lot of the melodies are bright and sunny but lost often times in the reverb and overdubbed vocal harmonies that make it more of a mood board for summertime imagery instead of a consistent selection of memorable hooks. Maybe the hype was a bit too much at the time. With that said, Panda Bear's songs are as delightful as always (following his high from the incredible Person Pitch album) and evoke some very happy, optimistic nostalgia during that time of being young and living through a moment of a lot of creativity and hope. He's the only member of AC whose music I still listen to often - experimental pop masterpieces all the way through. I find the Brian Wilson/Beach Boys comparisons to be lazy. But, in the same level as Pet Sounds or Smile, this is an album that's pretty idiosyncratic - you'd never mistake them for another band. It just doesn't thrill me as it used to. More of a 3.5. Still worth listening to, and glad it's on the list. Hope it made some new AC fans in the process!

A bit background music type album, not really one to make me come back for more, ok.

No other band quite sounds like Animal Collective. It’s strange and beautiful, and listening to them just makes me so happy. I like Strawberry Jam better than this one, but this one is really good. I just love the sounds these guys make.

Experimental, equal parts interesting and irritating for me. Appreciate that it’s a bit off the wall but sometimes it’s just too discordant for my enjoyment, particularly in the first half. By the second half I had sort of settled into the madness and could enjoy it more. Not a bad 1001 entry but can’t see myself dipping in again.

When it first started, I thought I might enjoy it as seem to be getting on board with psychedelic electronic music of late and many of my top listens have included elements like this.  However, at no point did I connect with this.  By the end I realised why... The lyrics and vocals are "normal", and I think dilute the experience as you have some interesting electronic sounds with dumb fluffy vocal overlay.  It's too bright and lovely and monotone actually (Just higher pitch).  It loops its head off then flattens any energy built by the synth machine. I don't think this is entirely terrible but songs like "My Girls" kill the concept and almost all songs have a bass that pounds and when used off beat its neat but does it so much I start to hate it. Pop cappella meets psyco techno?  Worth a try I guess as that must blow someone's mind.

I didn't know what to expect from this and when I saw the date I suspected I was in for disappointment. Maybe it was my low expectations but I really liked this on the first listen. It has that expansive noughties pop/rock sound that washes over you like waves of a vast hipster ocean. My criticism is that this sound is highly dependant on electronic manipulation so it would probably translate to a live performance reliant heavily on synths and pre-recorded samples. That and the fact that album is 10 minutes too long. They could have cut some of the fluff on the B side and improved the listening experience. Overall a solid effort and an intriguing listen. Although not an instant favourite, I think there was some potential shown here that would warrant further exploration.

-0.5 for the cover. Terrible. Music wise ok, nothing special. Helped me focused so it’s not too bad.

ambient music... but i just kept waiting for it to start. it was fine to have on in the background, but didn't really pull me in

This was not that good

Truly one of the more unique and interesting albums we’ve had. I can’t say I’ll ever listen to this album again, but I can understand why it’s on the list if it stuck out so much from 600+ albums.

I almost loved this album. The first two songs had me locked in for an epic album, but there are so many songs that just throw the groove off. It's so close to being great. They almost have the formula figured out.

It seems incredible now that this kind of whiny toss was being acclaimed as a masterpiece just a few years ago.

I didn't enjoy this at all. All the reverb and effects made it sound claustrophobic and just uncomfortable to listen to. Credit to them for being influential, experimental and inventive though!

Back in the days I remembered liking them, but now it's almost obnoxious

The kind of mid-indie music that sounds good when you are doing something else (making a bird-house, washing the dishes, reading a book, etc.) that take most of your brain's waves. Great background music, let's say. But giving it my full attention, doing nothing else, I found it kind of boring/monotonous. That sounds like 3 "I don't hate it/I don't love it" stars. Good for cleaning the house music....

Lots of cool sounds but with a incoherent structure. Many of these newer pop bands try to be a bit too experimental or progressive for my taste and just end up making music for a modern art gallery.

Wait I've actually heard a song on this one and I love it. Very interested. I think I'm really gonna like this one. Woah. Holy shit. I'm gonna put a pin in this and come back with headphones holy moly. It's very crunchy and interesting. I don't really know what's happening but I like it. Yes very interesting very fun. I really like this it feels like a normal song someone remixed or something its crazy. I can definitely believe this influenced music forever it’s sooooo. Don’t even know what to say really. Favourite: My Girls Least favourite: No More Running

This would take a number of listens to really sink in but these days you don't get that opportunity, and there are so many other things I'd rather listen to. Summertime Clothes and Brother Sport are great, the rest all just bled into one. Just an album that came out in the wrong time.

I liked it but also hated it. I don't know what to make of this.

no lo pude terminar de escuchar pq me aburrió, no está malo pero no elegiría escucharlo.

J’ai bien aimé mais c’est ésotérique

relentlessly millennial(non-derogatory)

3.6

p924. 2009. 1 star. "Pet Sounds" for the new millennium, but lacking the talent or songs. Starts of well but soon becomes repetitive and annoying. Instantly forgettable. And the album cover gives me a headache.

Really cool album cover, songs sound super modern for 2009. 8.1/10

Fun mix with sounds like Beatles and a more modern pop band I can't think of right now but enjoyable!

Not my style it’s ok

After the first track, I still thought the album might be pretty interesting. By the third track, the novelty had completely worn off and boredom set in. By the fifth track, the vocals and the musical arrangement were getting on my nerves. After the sixth track, I gave up and turned it off. I don’t need to listen to that again. 2/5

302/1089 quite liking this indie pop, less-synthy M83 sound. Also a bit of a Wallows vibe. meant to write more notes but i was vibing with it and i feel like i don’t necessarily need to add more. it was a pretty good album, missing that “spark” that would push it into a “safe” 5 star for me faves: Daily Routine, Brother Sport, No More Runnin 82/100

If I wanted to listen to two Beach Boys albums at the same time, I would.

Starting with the good… “My Girls” is awesome. Love the melodic sonic landscape. It’s quite hypnotic. As is a lot of this record. But that hypnotic quality can also get a little boring in places where it’s not quite as catchy like in “My Girls.” Certainly an interesting album worth listening to though. And new listen for me, although I’d heard of the band before.

It was interesting but in the same way a teenager on the keyboard is interesting

Right up my alley but lackluster songwriting

A cerebral rather than emotional experience. Beautiful and complex. Although I prefer Panda Bear’s solo stuff or his work with Spaceman 3’s Sonic Boom to anything Animal Collective have done, they’re still good just not great.

Kind of cool in spots. Reminded me of Pet Sounds at times. Overall didn’t have the structures or hook to keep my attention. Sounds VERY 2009.

You know what? I’m out on collectives. Either be a band or don’t. Nothing worse than hearing good music and looking up the band on Wikipedia and seeing they have a revolving cast of like 10 people. Make a commitment. Be a band The music itself was ok. Too much wall of synthetic sound. My girls is cool. I dunno I can’t be objective. Too mad about collectives Anyway

I can definitely see how this paved the way for a lot of the Tame Impala-ish psychedelic pop that came after. Damn though, some of this stuff is dragged on and overly repetitive to my current ears

I remember this album being kind of big while we were in college - didn't quite get it then, don't totally get it now. There are some okay sounds on here, but if I want this sound I'm probably going for more accessible pop version of this sound in Vampire Weekend or slightly more experimental MGMT (their new stuff is actually really good) or Beach Boys. Feels like we're listening to these guys try to find their sound and never totally find it. Also, maybe it's my headphones, but feel like I can't hear any of the individual instruments.

I can't remember where I've seen that album cover. Better than I was expecting, reminded me of the Beach Boys.

Weird (2/5) but oddly compelling...? (+1/5) = 3/5

Very millennial coded album

Listened previously. Expectations: High - Verdict: Very Good - An album with a great sound that envelops the listener. In The Flowers is weirdly creepy, while My Girls explodes into pure bliss. The next few songs continue to wash over you like warm water. I actually don't think many songs here are particularly amazing but as an album experience it works so well. As a individual track My Girls is the clear standout. Great album.

I'm fully convinced this list consists of albums that the writer thought were more thought provoking or comment worthy than actually good. My first thought was this is overproduced and entirely too busy to enjoy. But the listener counts are off the chart, 9M people listened to that first song. No song has fewer than 3M listens. Why? Is this gummy drop music, it's barely entertaining sober. 65M people listened to "My Girls" which is so repetitive and nonsensical I had to skip ahead. WTF, I'm very confused and can't understand the popularity of this song/album. It was like one long song sung in different parts by a monotone man in several layers with spacy music playing in the background. Were there any guitars or drums? This is shit. 2 stars

New wave like

Early 2000’s alt-rock

I have a new favorite obsession. I could tell it was going to take a few listens but it's worth it. Exploring more now. Love it!

4/5

8/10

I don't think this is objectively bad, to the extent that that's even a real concept, but I just don't like anything about it. I don't like the writing, the performance, the mix, any of it. This album is the equivalent of a sheet of paper filled edge-to-edge with text that's all the same font - no white space, no ups or downs, no real hooks, just a consistent melange of vaguely musical sound. I shouldn't have to work this hard to pay attention to music. I like 2000s indie pop, so it's not just a genre mismatch. I honestly considered giving this a 1 but I only give 1 star reviews to albums I feel strongly negative about; I don't care about this enough to hate it.

it took nearly a month to finally get through this one and I don't feel enriched for putting in the work

Despite other reviewers thoughts, I can both not like this album and be willing to listen to new or experimental music and still not like this album. It baffles me less that some people like it or hate it and more that disliking it is seen as "lacking expansion" in music. I promise it's okay to both be willing to listen to new sounds AND for "different" albums not to be loved by the collective.

Listened to before? No Context? Animal Collective’s most popular and most critically acclaimed album, regarded as a hallmark of indie music; recorded after the departure of their guitarist, and thus features no guitar. My general philosophy is to meet an album where it’s at. You can’t blame a dance album for being repetitive. You can’t judge the mixing on a punk album. You can’t expect a pop album about partying to discuss geopolitics. Sadly, it’s difficult to meet this album where it’s at, because where it’s at is shrooms and LSD. Even though the band members were sober in its making, all their previous albums were rooted in their use of psychedelics, and primarily meant to listen to while on psychedelics, and that’s still the case here. And as much as I want to review things well, I will most definitely not be taking acid. Luckily, there are some moments where you can sort of simulate the experience. If not through mind-altering drugs, then through some pleasant moments where the bright synths and playful lyrics feel crushingly joyful and cinematic. I found those moments in these places: -Listening to the album while putting make-up on before a party. -Listening while half-asleep on the subway. -Listening through my low-quality iPhone speaker while taking a hot shower. -Listening while petting my dog. -Listening at 3 am. -Listening while drinking a cup of fancy cherry vanilla green tea and eating an ultra-buttery Sam’s Club croissant. And yes, I listened to this thing probably 10+ times, because I kept getting interrupted while listening, or didn’t feel like I paid enough attention. It was kind of cursed in that way. Thankfully, I loved this album. I have to note that I’m actually very frustrated about the overall reviews this album has on this website. Given the nature of the 1001 albums generator, I thought people here would be more open-minded, or at least willing to dislike stuff in a way that isn’t just “this is weird and complex! Ew!” Ultimately, I don’t care what your opinion on this album is, but most of these reviews just show an unwillingness to engage or listen critically. But I digress. This album feels like childhood—running through heatwaves to reach the ice cream truck and jumping into lakes from a rope swing. The name of the album actually came from a music venue of the same name, which—not to dox myself—is pretty close to where I live, and I’ve been there for concerts. It’s honestly a great venue for the kind of feeling described in this album: it’s outdoors, with an open grassy area behind the rows of seats. It’s one of the few places nearby where you can get cheap tickets, as the grass tickets are genuinely cheaper than going to shows at bars now. There were $30 tickets to see the Beach Boys there, for example. Families go and lay out picnic blankets, and it’s very festival-like. Lots of little kids, young couples, boxes of pizza, and beach balls. People bring the same fold-out chairs they do to little league baseball games. It has that suburban summer feel, which is very much the same thing this album encompasses. The album can sometimes feel like something set out in the sun too long. An oozing strawberry. The sweet scent of moldy bread. Sucralose and Red 40. Not necessarily because there’s any sort of negative emotion introduced, but because of the nature of nostalgia and human memory. It’s either expired, artificially preserved, or made hazy in some way. This effect makes the songs all the more potent. There’s a barely-contained joyousness as well. Lyrics like “I’m getting lost in your curls.” “Everything around seemed to giggle in glee.” “I want to walk around with you!” “There isn’t much that I feel I need.” The lyricism is sensual and diary-like. Its exact phrasing doesn’t always make sense, but it doesn’t really need to. It’s smudged out by the heatwaves. The few moments of inner turmoil don’t feel all that sad, either. “Also Frightened,” for example, has a comforting quality that resolves its underlying anxiety when placed between “My Girls” (the best song on the album!) and “Summertime Clothes.” And the existential nature of “Taste” is made more curious than soul-crushing through the anecdote of laughing with a friend, as well as the friend saying he doesn’t want fancy clothes because “you can’t eat those.” That’s another element of the album: rejection of the material world. The narrator doesn’t care about “material things,” and has only simple needs in the physical realm. Despite most of the talk about this regarding adult things, like wanting a house, it is rather childlike: content with happiness and the natural world. It adds to the psychedelic, detached feel of the album. Sonically, it’s highly processed. There are countless layers of synth, and no guitar. The band ran everything separately through a PA system to replicate their live sound, which they then sampled, layered, and manipulated. The only acoustic instrumentation is drums, which were heavily processed after their initial recording. The synths have a shimmer over them, and tend to float in the high-ends, soaked in reverb. The vocal melodies are simple, and border on monotone; instead, they focus on rhythm and simply being catchy. It works, too. If there was ever an album perfect for listening during the summer, it’s this one. It’ll make you feel like a dog sleeping under a beam of light: content, comforted, and perhaps a little bit lazy.

I was intrigued and impressed enough to listen to this twice I’m still not sure what I feel about it but I’m certain I like it.

I listened to this 6 times. And I didn’t expect to like it that much. On the first listen or two, it sounded overwhelming. After, it felt super atmospheric. It was a cool transformation I didn’t expect. This album did a lot against my expectations, and that’s part of why I liked it. So much. I’m super impressed.

i didn't think i was going to like this album as much as i ended up doing so at the beginning, but it was a different and energizing vibe and this band will be now on my radar for other songs/albums!

Not a fan

3.5 Sounds like if the Beach Boys were trying to summon Cthulhu

Like it 3/5

I liked a lot of this, then there were not-so-good moments.

One of my absolute favorites. I own it on vinyl. One of AC’s finest

Felt a little like the beach boys.

knew this one was a /mu/ classic so i had low expectations but yeah this is pretty cool actually. very trippy, very hazy, very Beach Boys-y. "Summertime Clothes" makes me want to frolic in a field.

I really like this. It's an ideal amount of weird and an absolute treat

I'm unable to pinpoint the band's style; it doesn't seem clearly defined. While this might appeal to some listeners, it's not enough to keep me engaged, at least talking about this particular album.

It's fine

zzzzzz

Nah. Not for me.

Nothing very memorable that stuck out but it sounded generally upbeat

Si no conociera de antemano la música de Anima Collective no sé si me hubiera gustado el álbum. Creo que no son un grupo tan accesible porque para mí van más allá de lo psicodélico. En fin, excelente, y legendario, álbum de este siglo (al menos).

I dug this one. Nice and trippy sound. 4.5 bumped up to 5.

I’m at a 3.5 that I’ll barely bump up to a 4. The first half of this album is good. Genuinely, really good. I think the mundanity of the lyricism blended with the heavier, electronic/psychedelic soundscapes make for a good contrast to each other, balanced in a way that doesn’t let one overshadow the other. My problem here lies in the second half of the album, where the soundscapes very clearly overshadow the lyricism / vocal delivery. The care that’s put into keeping the album balanced feels skewed in the wrong direction, and while I don’t think there’s any bad tracks here, at least for my own tastes, I found myself significantly less satisfied by almost everything from Track 7 onwards, save for “Brother Sport”, which is just a super fun closing track. Interestingly, you can see this exact split on Spotify, at least in terms of the play count. There’s a dip downward for tracks 7 through 10, before jumping back up at the end. It tells me that the experimentation this album really leans into on those tracks just didn’t click with a lot of people, and while I can’t exactly prove why… I mean, look, it’s probably the wall of noise. Those 4 tracks lean into it heavily as a production trick, and while it has its place, it’s just overtuned in a way that makes the already flowery lyricism of this album a bit harder to grasp than the more clearcut & digestible first half. Past that, the vocal structures each track takes (especially apparent on “Lion in a Coma”) become REALLY hard to follow, or at the very least, they just don’t mesh as cleanly with the instrumentals as they did in the first half. If this album stayed as consistently strong as that first half / last song, it would definitely be within the range of a 5. It’s a fascinating listening experience, especially for 2009, and I admire a lot of the swings this album takes to try and push the general direction / trend that MGMT’s album set up in a unique enough way. At its best, this album really holds up into 2026. It just barely maintains it consistently enough to warrant bumping it back up to a 4. Hence, a 3.5 that I’ll bump up to a 4. It is an album one should still hear before they die, if only for the experimentation of it all & the genuine sweetness behind both “My Girls” & “Summertime Clothes”, which are probably my two favorite tracks here. Special shoutout to “Daily Routine” for secretly being the most morbid track on the album – pay really close attention to those lyrics and tell me if that daily routine looped the same way the second time around. I think the traffic might’ve got him, hence the long outro. It’s the sort of clever production work I really admire, which is why the lack of sustainability hits that much more harshly. I did enjoy it, and despite its flaws, I do think it barely earns a 4, if only for its ambition.

4/10

Like if Arcade Fire were happy. With all the "experimental" labels in the comments I was expecting something more, well, experimental; this is just a band who have a sound and nail it. More variety might have been interesting but if you like the sound, don't worry about them experimenting away from it!

I've tried to get into Animal collective a few times to little success, but I actually really enjoyed this album this time around. There are some really great synth sounds, percussion, and vocal melodies. I really enjoyed this album, and will be adding it to my regular rotation. My only complaint is that the last couple of songs are a little bit of a drag. Low 5.

some very good production on it, my girls is amazing.

Too bubblegum and poppy for me. Just didn’t click

Great background music and very rewarding layering as long as you don’t actually read the lyrics

Put this on if you want to bring your copy of Cather's Rye to the opening of the new (fully permitted) "speakeasy" with a built in barbershop.

I think it's pretty cool that MGMT and Brian Wilson got together to make some music. Probably the apotheosis of that dreamy electronic 2000s psych pop thing, which is a mediocre genre anyway. Lots of layers, lots of reverb, lots of loops, lots of goofy lyrics sung in that Beach Boys register. Hell, the album cover looks like the music sounds, which is a real artistic coup. Decent stuff. Tempted to ding 'em lower since they may have played a part in unleashing Chainsmokers on the world, though.

Super influential sound, perfect music to disassociate to

Awful

I should like this but I don't. There is too much going on. I like the album name. Maybe I'll give it a try some other time

Nice album

Experimental pop belongs in a Coca Cola Research Lab, not my earholes

I want to like this but I just don't get it. I am sure if I spent more time with it ai would get it, but as of now I don't.

I didn't like Merriweather Post Pavilion all that much back in 2009 but now it sounds refreshing and a lot less irritating than I remembered. Requires right state of mind. 3,7 or so.

This album certainly qualifies as something that can be heard if you play it.

core to my tetris career

This was too chaotic for me to really enjoy it.

I discovered this album when I was a teenager and felt -very- smug that I actually really liked proper music that was a bit weird. And you know what, I still do. This album holds up, I love the discordant sounds (always did, always will) and there is something very enjoyable about them to this day. I also appreciate this album serving as a gateway into other, weirder shit - as I'm sure it did for others too. Well done lads, you smashed it! Also who doesn't love looking at that album cover!!

It’s a real banger of the 2000s indie era, one of the best to do it, and overcomes the fact that a lot of these kinds of textures feel a bit baffling now they’re out of the zeitgeist. NOT SO with this lot. Well done gang

difficult to put into words. sort of a bunch of happy electronica hymns. honestly, not very bad but also not that catchy

The world needs less of this.

This started out okay, and transitioned to me after a while. Not really my thing.

I like a lot of branches of the psychedelic tree, including this one that includes EDM and art rock components. It's a shade too long and they might not be as profound as they think they are, but when 3:17 of My Girls hits, you realize that they might make you work for it but definitely can pay it off. Summertime Clothes and Bluish are other favorites and I like more than I don't on this one. Panda Bear continues to make interesting tracks currently.

Every now and then there would be a bit I liked, but never a whole song. Most of the instrumental parts sounded like a nightmare calliope.

4/5 - The epitome of joyful 2000s era indie, which I'm a total sucker for. My Girls is classic. Summertime Clothes is a great time. Also love Lion in a Coma.

Some good ideas in this album and some good songs trying to get out but it just feels like AC have thrown every sound their can find into this making it more impenetrable that could have been. Ended up being a bot of a hard listen. Perhaps less would have been more.

Sounds like they tried to be a "Happy", NIN.

Fire lowkey

I definitely enjoyed listening to this, sort of an ethereal, trancey, experimental indie album. It nice to kind let wash over you if you're tired or don't want to focus entirely on one thing in the tracks. Pretty good vocals and interesting instruments, I'll probably listen to this again Solid 75-80/100.

weird but good! would listen again

Repetitive, but I really appreciated the overall tone of the album, that was cohesive throughout the whole thing rather than random songs that don’t seem to go together.

2 stars Animal Collective are an acquired taste. And I eventually acquired it. But it took years. My older brother introduced me to them when I was in high school and Feels came out. I wasn’t into it at first, but it grew on me. When Strawberry Jam came out it was too abrasive for me and it shut me off the band for years. I wasn’t plugged in when Merriweather first came out. But 2 years later in anticipation of their 2011 Coachella set that I ended up not attending, I retried Strawberry Jam and it grew on me hard. “Fireworks” became one of my favorite songs. I saw them when they toured for Centipede Hz and finally got into Merriweather, a little late. I always very much enjoyed “My Girls” and “Brother Sport.” I also never got into much of the album, although I listened to it a lot. I would get into some of the harmonies and weird melodies on the album. It’s like if you put random lyrics to 60s backward guitar solos. But at the end of the day, listening to the album feels like a chore to get through. The middle up to “Brother Sport” is uninteresting. And “Brother Sport” is a weird song to be the catchiest song on the album, considering it has 2 solid minutes of repeating noise in the middle section. All of this to say, I kind of understand and simultaneously have no idea why people love this record. I wanted to give it a 3 but listening to it all the way through reminded me why I haven’t revisited this album over the past decade. It has high moments, but much of it is boring.

My first exposure to Animal Collective. Was a bit more 'out there' than I expected, in a good way. A lot of arrangement twists and turns. Not as far as Flaming Lips (which can be isolating) but certainly strays from mainstream. Like Architecture In Helsinki.

A lot of this reminds me Beatles? The submarine album.. But also.. I like some elements but... I think one listen is enough for me..

#325/1001. Turns out I’m 3 degrees of separation of away from the Animal collective. But I guess that is just because I know someone from Iceland (from the music scene). But as far as the music goes the seoaration diminishes to 2, 1, 0. It's there any separation? This is my music, although I didn't make it. We don't play guitars. For me this album is a proof that pop music can still evolve, change, open new doors, step out of the path instead of following the same footsteps hundreds have followed before. One can hear animal collective in a lot of things that came after this, merely imitating the sound, stealing glimpses of it, somehow because surpassing the sound experimentation vs pop attitude in this album would have made everyone fail. This record sets some limits for pop sonics and until they change it will be a 5.

Their eighth album. Pop / Alt Rock. I am 362 albums in and never given a score of 1 to three albums in a row until now. Thanks to Taylor Swift, Frank Ocean and this shite. There is actually some great music out there today and there was in the 2010s too, however it tends to be found under the radar. The stuff that gets spat out in the main from around 2009 onwards is pigs swill. Popular music took a terrible nose dive from this kind of era onwards. Utter bollocks !

5/5

I'm listening to track 1 and all I can think is "this is worse than the last fucking album I listened to", and that album was Vulnicura by Bjork - which could be the worst album I've heard yet (admittedly, I only listened to 2 tracks of that album, but I listened to several of her other albums in full so I am sufficiently confident that it wouldn't have a huge uptick). Track 2 of this album is also just as bad. Maybe it gets better, but I'll never know.

My girls

Save your time!

3.5/5

4/10 - My Girls is the highlight but the rest is quite...noisy?

I thought this was the "Heat Waves" guys at first. Nope. This is cool enough. Electronic, tribal, ethereal, kinda Beach House-y. "My Girls" is instantly recognizable from...everywhere. Headphones are key to appreciate the little twinkles and sonic tiddlywinks on this one, otherwise it just sounds like noise.

I consider 2010 the year I "got into music" (so to speak), and 2011 the year I started keeping up with new music. these years were formative not just for my taste in wiggly air, but also my life as a denizen of the Internet. since forums, wikis and digital databases were my main source of knowledge on music of the past and present, my first memories of Animal Collective are of me scrolling /mu/, seeing memes about the songs and cover art of Merriweather Post Pavilion (their newest album at the time) with no other context. after a little digging, I realized I was slightly too late to the party. the 9.6/10 score MPP got in Pitchfork upon release in '09 was a shot heard 'round the digital music world. some listeners and critics received this thing with a level of rapturous fervor rivaling that of The Beach Boys' most loyal adherents. I would also come to discover that Animal Collective was one of those bands that most people either loved or hated, without much middle ground. to this day, even relatively accessible albums in their discography like this one tend to raise the hackles on some people (are they "Also Frightened"?). personally, I've become a big fan of their 2000s work over the years, and I view MPP as the culmination of a pretty great run of music that encompasses a huge range of stylistic and emotional ground. in particular, it feels like a streamlining of the electronic pop insanity their previous album (2007's Strawberry Jam) achieved with flying neon colors. I mentioned The Beach Boys earlier; there's no doubt that MPP is in conversation with Brian Wilson, one of pop music's foremost innovators of an earlier era. the sonic and structural avenues Animal Collective travels down here are spectacular, especially on the A-side. "My Girls" features a subtle metric modulation, with its prominent synth motif turning from triplets into sixteenth notes without changing their speed. once it switches over and that 4/4 groove settles in, the mixture of vocal harmonies, sparse, syncopated drums and reverb-soaked synths that follows is irresistible. the same applies to the propulsive dance of closing track "Brother Sport". but my favorite track, "Daily Routine", moves speedily through some simple, deadly catchy melodies which then get suspended in time dilation for its last two-thirds, creating a spectacular auditory blur. decent 9/10.

2009. Titled after the Maryland venue of the same name, where Portner and Weitz attended concerts in their youth.

tried to like it

I listened to this twice, and liked it better the second time. I was rather taken aback by how experimental it sounded at first, though that's not a bad thing. I think it works on some level, and the fugue-like vocals were a highlight. But even after listening twice, I can't really remember any of the songs, just kind of how it felt to listen to them. I will say, the album cover does an excellent job of conveying the kind of music you're getting.

I'm a mark for this genre so unsurprisingly I enjoyed it

Repetitive. Boorish. This does not move me on any level. Occasional good ideas get beaten to death.

not a fan

They're like an indie pop jam band

I love this album, but I wish I was high listening to it right now.

Какая-то жуть. Действительно. коллектив животных, орущих чёрт знает что

Not really my type of album. I really like Psychedelic Rock, but I find a lot of the more pop oriented Psychedelia from later on very tiresome to listen to. Takes the droneyness from Psych and combines it with the annoyingness of Pop. It starts off alright but it just doesn't really shift up or down in gear and just drags. I can see it being enjoyable for others, I find it tiresome and unpleasing on the ears.

They apparently put so much care and attention in to crafting something so insipid? It was lauded as ‘one of the landmark American albums of the century so far’? Sometimes I feel like I am living in a parallel universe

As soon as I saw this album pop up, I had to laugh. As an indie afficionado during the time it came out, I am well-familiar with this album. So while I know exactly what I'm getting into, I cannot wait to see some of the reviews of people hearing this for the first time without any foreknowledge into what it sounds like. I do think this is as close to an indie electronic pop masterpiece as you can get. The complex layers, strange yet pleasing melodies, asynchronous beats, and nonsensical lyrics, MPP has it all. But it's not flawless, and I have the same problems with the album now as I did then. The sound is so unique and so cool, but it's very weird, sometimes off-putting, and I can only handle it in small doses. Listening to the album start to finish is just kind of annoying. Plus, it's an album where the best songs truly stand out rather than an album where every song brings something special to the table. Some of the tracks that aren't the standouts, start to sound very similar. Regardless of whether you like this kind of music or not is irrelevant in the debate of whether this is a worthy inclusion on the list of 1001 albums or not. When this was released, indie topped the radio charts, and "indie" was a loose term that referred not necessarily to an independent record label but more to a genre, a movement. When it came to indie pop that truly stayed indie, Animal Collective was king and this album, to many, is their crown jewel. I certainly can't give this album a 5. It's a bit too repetitive and has some uninteresting tracks, but for what it is, what it meant to music at the time (and its influences), not to mention the standout songs, especially "Brothersport", which half of the reviewers probably didn't even get to, it's definitely a 4 in my book.

Wow, that album really annoyed me. The electronic effects are simply awful, and the vocals, the screaming, are absolutely terrible. "Also Frightened"—yes, that's me. Electronic music is one of my favorite genres, but "Animal Collective" ruins everything. Wow, "Daily Routine"—what's with that strange keyboard? And that constant "howling" that's probably the vocal part. No, if that's all there is to Animal Collective, then I'm sorry. I guess I'll never listen to them again.