One of the most eagerly awaited releases of the aughts is the new Animal Collective album, Merriweather Post Pavillion. After seven albums in nine years, these freaks have come up with a shimmering combination of dub, hip hop, electronica, ecstatic post-rock, and spoon-bending "pop." This is the audio equivalent of washing down Pop Rocks with champagne. If you're ready for something new, drop your radio-conditioned reflexes and listen--and see if you think this album deserves all the rave reviews and slack-jawed adoration.
"It feels like one of the landmark American albums of the century so far." - UNCUT
"Squares are seldom invited to the art-school party, and for nearly a decade, the trippy, often willfully obtuse output of cerebral-psych outfit Animal Collective easily stopped most musical normies at the door." - Entertainment Weekly
"Merriweather Post Pavilion is one of this year's most feverishly anticipated indie albums, and it's worth taking a moment to consider how startling it is that music so idiosyncratic—so adventurous, so strange—could qualify as momentous on any scale."
--The Onion AV Club
"Like the Grateful Dead before them, the psychedelic heads of Animal Collective are evolving from raging sonic hallucinations into gentler, more melodic trips. The ninth disc from this Brooklyn/Baltimore crew tries balancing shameless beauty with ecstatic weirdness, and when they nail it, it's breathtaking." - Rolling Stone
Go ahead. Listen to "In the Flowers" by Animal Collective. Just push the button:
