let's get away for awhile

Having worshipped Animal Collective for some time now, my first listen to Merriweather Post Pavilion left me, as expected, feeling mindblown, amply convinced that this latest maelstrom of electronic/psychedelic rock is something the band have been building towards all along. Whereas there always existed at times an ungainly quality about their experimentations or primitive-soundscaping indulgences (not that I'm going to fault them for it, for I have enjoyed every esoteric bit about albums like Here Comes The Indian or Danse Manatee), the beautifully composed Merriweather Post Pavilion now finds the band more interested in transforming patchwork sound elements into vivid feels of escapism that can be readily digested. Whether it is the gorgeous way the opening pop-nostalgic conflagration of "Bluish" set the scene for Avey Tare's "I'm getting lost in your curls" reverie or the mantra-melodic porousness of "Lion In A Coma", each of these eleven cuts presents the Collective in a new adventurous light. Guitarist Deakin sits out this one, so the Merriweather Post Pavilion songs are noticably conceived without the guitar in mind and are none the worse for it, with quite a few of the more accessible tracks sharing the same swirling retro pigments and sampling bloodlines as Panda Bear's excellent Person Pitch, a forever-changes fluidity most evident in Panda's stunning domestication theme "My Girls". And what of the mesmeric things Avey and Panda can be heard singing about? Tundra wilderness, flower dancers, a living room filled with arts and crafts, the night smell of garbage: Merriweather Post Pavilion races breathlessly through its purple-bottle fantasies always in lockstep with human foibles before slowing to a trot with the icy, baleful tones of "No More Runnin" (which recalls a little of the loosely structured "Street Flash", an EP track released last year that is best listened to while rollerskating at midnight). Then senses awaken once again for the climaxing "Brother Sport", a song that for all practical purposes serves as a Panda-inflected conduit for letting go but whose sentimentalities are soon eclipsed by an endlessly clattering electronic drone that turns progressively intoxicating and more ecstatic along the way, until the song/album/band feel completely liberated of all the misfortunes and hang-ups hinted earlier. Befitting of an album that is by far the most expansive in Animal Collective's workaholic canon, ever shifting sounds and sensibilities light up every tendril of this genuinely audacious music that is hopefully a signpost of many exciting things still to come.