Merriweather Post Pavilion

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

relentlessly millennial(non-derogatory)

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

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.

Felt a little like the beach boys.

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’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.

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.

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.

Felt like absolute torture at times

I’m not sure what to say about this. I want to listen to more… experimental and fun, would love a bit more edginess. Has a Beach Boys feel in the vocals, and I once again crave more bass. Inventive, but leaves me wanting more. I’m missing something so I really need another listen. Cool though.

I have an history with this album. At first I hated it with a passion and when I saw them live at Dour it confirmed what I thought : pretentious and getting on my nerves with this psyche rock and those synth waves.

Then some years later a guy told me that this album needs time to get appreciated and indeed it clicked. The choral singing got me and the repetitive synth lines became hypnotic rather than boring. I was hooked and it became an heavy rotation for some times at home.

Favorite songs: My Girls ; Also Frightened ; Summertime Clothes ; Bluish ; Taste ; Lion in a Coma ; Brother Sport

Hey look, a (relatively) contemporary album that we actually own and listen to from time to time! Named after a venue that I've been to a number of times! I even had lunch with a friend up near Merriweather Post Pavilion recently!

Anyway, I think this is an interesting record, thick with electronics and harmonies. But I don't listen to it very often because it sounds a little too, I don't know, wholesome? There's a near-Beach Boys level of cheerfulness in many of the vocals, and it lacks the kind of dissonance that makes me really love an album. But I appreciate how imaginative it is.

4

I found the album cover more entertaining. Wibbly wobbles.

too sober for that stuff

Back in the days of good ol' indie Y2K yore, listening to Merriweather Post Pavilion for the first time completely rewired my brain. For better or worse, I can't say. But ever since, there's been a clear "before" and "after" MPP for me.

Not heard anything from these guys before, and based on this, I’m not sure I’ll be coming back any time soon. Just too much stuff trying to be packed in here, with the result being a fairly incoherent, jumbled, cacophonous mess. It’s like some kids got let loose in a studio and decided they have to use every effect at least once, and fuck do they love reverb. Soooo muuuuuch fuuuckingggg reverbbbbbbbbbb.
Anyway, can’t decide between 1 and 2 stars, but I’ll err on the side of being generous

I never listened to this band because the people that listenrd to it where such assholes. Listening to it now it's tamer then I thought. Wall of sound not noise. It's ok. To long though

The pretentious, Pitchfork reading millennial musos got this one right at least. This is awesome.

A disorientating, yet playful experience designed for a trip on acid or shrooms, yet still fun and intriguing to delve into in a sober state. You've got all sorts of layers of swirling, warpy electronics and echoing vocals duking it out with one another because why not, but the songs remain anchored to catchy pop sensibilities, follow logical structures and exude a very human warmth, ensuring it isn't just an alien lab experiment gone wrong. The production on this one is immense as well, providing the ideal, vivid platform for these songs to wrap themselves snugly around the surface of your eardrums.

It reminds me in many ways of Yo La Tengo's more experimental tendencies, LCD Soundsystem, The Flaming Lips and Brian Wilson crossed with IDM/space ambient. No surprise that Sonic Boom would later take an interest in these guys, sounding out Panda Bear for a collaboration.

It's gone onto the purchase list. Sorry, not sorry.

Favorite track(s): In the Flowers, My Girls, Summertime Clothes, Daily Routine, Bluish, Taste, Brother Sport

Even if the album wasn't amazing, I'd still rate it 5 stars for the criminal underrepresentation of AnCo on this list.

Heard before
Previous rating: 8/10