61 Albums - #2

I've decided that, since I'm getting burned out writing so much (and, consequentially, writing less about some of the later albums on the list), I will continue the list by posting one album at a time.

So here goes: Think of 25 albums that had such a profound effect on you they changed your life.  Ones that dug into your soul.  Music that brought you to life when you heard it.  Royally affected you, kicked you in the wazoo, literally socked you in the gut, is what I mean.  Then, when you finish, tag 15 others.  Make sure you copy and paste this part so they know the drill.
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Ok, I know a lot of you are just gonna post your favorite albums of all time or the albums you think are the best of the best and then rank them but I took this pretty seriously.  I've ranked the 60 albums, out of my personal collection, that most affected me after listening.  They range from 1963 to 2009.  Some of these albums I don't really listen to much anymore (but the funny thing is that now I'm re-listening to a lot of these and finding that they're just brilliant [Blink-182 - Enema Of The State, for example]) but they helped shape me, musically and personally, into who I am now.  This isn't merely a "this album is better than the previous" list.  I did factor that in with some of these (mostly the newer albums that really hooked me in but haven't had a profound effect on my life, yet) but most all of these are ranked above others because of their substantial impact on my personality.  This took me a pretty long time to put together so, without further ado, here they are:

2/ Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion - 2009

Copied from MindSay Music Reviews:
"I grew up around music.  I was constantly involved with the sounds coming from my father's turntable soundsystem.  Frank Zappa, The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Lou Reed, a ton of blues, and everything in between.  I loved everything my Dad played.  I was ecstatic when I received my CD copies of We're Only In It For The Money and Lumpy Gravy.  I went out and bought Sgt. Peppers at a school club sale because I "knew their name."  And now I've grown up.  I've developed my own tastes and I find new music almost every day.

But one big thing that I've noticed is that there are no more "big hits."  We're in a digital age where you can get a single song for a dollar and be on your way.  No longer is there a strong focus on albums as a cohesive whole.  Most everything that's mainstream popular is popular for a reason.  It gives those that don't care about music something to listen to.  As soon as they get bored of the song, the next big single from "X Band" is out on iTunes.  There's no waiting.  It's all constant.  And mostly garbage.  But I've always wanted something to hold onto.  Any band I tried to grasp onto when I was into Top 40 material dissipated before any substance was created.  And then I hit a revelation.  An album that my cousin gave me as a birthday gift began seeping into my head.  It flowed nicely and had a good pace.  I then began to compare albums to it and before long I was searching for an album to top it.  I kept finding them.  Each time I'd find a new album better than the last top album.  And then finally, I discovered two albums.  OK Computer and Kid A (for the second time).  I began listening to these albums so much that they instantly jumped to the top of my all-time list.

And so it stayed until this past Christmas day.

In early October, one of my other favorite bands, Animal Collective, had announced their next album.  I've loved Animal Collective from the second I heard their song "Grass."  This is probably one of the only bands to rival Radiohead for that top spot of mine.  So I've kept an eye out for that special album again.  This time I've got very high standards.

Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion is due out on vinyl January 6th and on CD and digital January 12th.  Since early October, I've been following the news of this album.  And, finally, it leaked on the internet on Christmas day.

Animal Collective's albums all have a very different sound from each other.  Their first release, Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They've Vanished, is a pop album buried deep beneath 3 feet of electronic noise.  Danse Manatee got a bit more experimental with the original sound.  Here Comes The Indian is like if an early-human tribe got a hold of the equipment used to create Animal Collective's signature electronic sound. Take away the electronic noises, leave the tribal tendencies, and add a little more vocal experimentation and you have Sung Tongs.  But then Feels came along a year later and turned back to electronics.  But this time it was different.  There were layers and layers of sound and melodies and harmonies.  Strawberry Jam turned you on your ear yet again.  Where Feels was a warm experience, Strawberry Jam is disjointed in a way.  It was a new spin on pop music.

Animal Collective see pop in a new light.  The music on this album is comparable in nature to Sgt. Peppers.  It's experimental and yet the structures and melodies of each song are catchy and are extremely singable.  Merriweather Post Pavilion may be my new #1 album.

MPP starts with "In the Flowers" (Preview it here). It begins with sounds and noises similar to what you can imagine a dream sounding like.  And then an arpeggioed chord rings out and Avey Tare begins to sing.  He sounds like he's singing underwater.  There isn't a beat... it just flows.  But then Avey sings "If I could just leave my body for the night."  CRASH!  The song literally explodes with energy and sound and drums and bass.  It continues for a while until it dies out and the song returns to its original flowing sound.  The song comes to a slow stop.  Welcome to what this album is like.  It's rampant with tension and release.  It's a lesson in cohesiveness.

The second song in the album proves that this band is not what some people believed them to be.  I've met many a person who said "Animal Collective?  Just a noise-ridden, melody-lacking, druggie band."  Druggie band?  Maybe.  Noise-ridden?  Perhaps on some songs.  Melody-lacking?  Listen to "My Girls" (Preview it here). This is one of the best pop songs I've ever heard.  It's got all the elements of a basic song.  2 verses, 2 bridges, and 2 choruses.  It's also got some particularly catchy melodies.  I dare you to listen to this song and not start singing along.  The song starts with a swirling noise and a very quick electronic arpeggio.  Noah Lennox's voice rings out.  "Isn't much that I feel I need.  A solid soul and the blood I bleed.  With a little girl and by my spouse, I only want a proper house."  David Portner's backing vocals come through with spectacular effect on the repeat.  At the end of the 2nd time through, a shaker provides you with a solid tempo, much faster than the original.  Suddenly they repeat the vocals, this time with an added beat and woody-drum part.  And then the bridge!  This is where the Beach Boys comparisons are justified.  Handclaps are now in place and before you get used to the bridge there's a small part between the bridge and chorus.  "And my father's grace" repeated over and over and then a wash of beautiful melody and harmony greet you.  The song repeats this structure one more time before slowly dying down with the 3-part harmony at the end.  The song is about only wanting the most basic things for your wife and children.  It's got incredible words, even in their simplistic nature.  And the rest of the album never lets you down as far as lyrics go.  Onto the next song: "Also Frightened."

Faded in, we hear a sample of tribal drums and a yell before a mad rush of beats, synthesizers, and harmonized words.  This is definitely one of the more wordy songs on the entire album but it's got an incredible message.  While the name of the album leads to no understanding of the message of it as a whole, the words of the songs certainly do.  Over the 11 songs, there is an overwhelming sense of future possibilities for family and friends.  It's an extremely personal album about what's in store for those closest to you and what you want for them.  This particular song, "Also Frightened" (Preview it here), perfectly sums of the exact message I'm trying to explain.  The words are very abstract but once you stop scrutinizing them up close and step back a little, you can understand what the song is about.  It's about seeing your children playing and living their life in the present but, when talking to your spouse, you realize that you're very unsure about their future.  Will they be like you?  Will they be completely different?  Should you try and mold them to be who you want them to be?  No one should call you a dreamer for wishing the best for your child but are you also frightened?

I have to apologize to you all for this very verbose review but this is probably the most exciting album I've found in the last 8 years.  I'm also under the influence of hydrocodone so I can't help but feel more happy than usual about all of this.

So we move on.  After the beauty and grandeur of "Also Frightened," we arrive at "Summertime Clothes" (Preview it here). This is another PERFECT example of a wonderful pop song.  But this time we have a balanced mix of pop arrangement and Animal Collective experimentalism.  Heavily-distorted noise set to a four-to-the-floor beat leads into triplet notes that are... some sort of electronic instrument put through several effects.  It's an incredible sound done by many other bands but rarely done successfully.  It's immediately catchy and a quick reaction is that this could easily be on the radio.  But what's fantastic about it is that it's not cliche like so many other Top 40 Radio songs.  It's all about wanting to just be with your lover and just walk with them when you're lonely... but it tells that story almost like a country song.  It starts at the beginning.  You're hot, sweaty, and bored on a summer night.  You call your girl and she picks up.  So you slide down to the hot street and you go walking together.  It doesn't matter where you go, you just go.  It describes all the sensations related and if you've ever had a similar experience, you immediately understand and connect with this song.  The song breaks to an incredibly cheery bridge that literally sounds sunny.  "When the sun goes down we'll go out again..."  Makes sense :).  There's another verse before the song ends in the chorus of "I want to walk around with you!  Just you, just you, just you!"

I really hope you're all still reading because this is where the album gets even more interesting.  The next song is called "Daily Routine" (Preview it here) and is exactly about that.  A daily routine.  But this song is anything but routine.  It starts out with the sounds of someone slamming a pedal and a weird synthesized chirp noise.  But it gets faster.  And faster.  And even more faster until the one chirp turns into a revolving series of chirps that almost sounds like an alarm clock before an explosion of bass breaks in and Noah sings "JUST A SEC MORE IN MY BED."  Haha!  Pretty clever.  This is one interesting song.  I'm not sure how to describe it other than melodic chanting broken up by the series of chirps.  It's very foreign sounding and is just... awesome.  It's just an awesome song.  My only complaint is the length.  It's nearly 6 minutes long.  But nearly 6 minutes isn't the problem.  The problem is a solid 3:45 of a very slow dream-like section that closes out the song.  It's just dreamy noises and Noah singing "Just a sec more in my bed!  Hope the machine's working right!" over and over again.  It's extremely beautiful but gets a little old after about 2 minutes.

It's not a bad song though.  It's one of the best on the album.  But the next song is an incredible step towards a blend of experimental slow songs, dance music, and tropicalia!  "Bluish" (Preview it here) begins with a very liquid sound that swirls into a effect-heavy guitar part.  And then: BA-BOOM BA-BOOM BA-BOOM BA-BOOM.  This heavy beat breaks in and one of the most amazingly catchy series of notes rings through.  When David starts singing, his voice is reverberated through a long hallway of sound.  "I'm getting lost in your curls."  It's an incredibly romantic song.  But the verse is only the beginning of this amazing blend of music.  Noah and David harmonize a word into the chorus: an explosion of shakers, guitar, tribal drums, and sparse piano.  It's almost confusing as to how a song so washed by Animal Collective's signature sound could be so natural with this alien-genre-embellishment.  It's a lesson to be learned by these dime-a-dozen bands out there right now.

The next song took me a while to really understand.  But now I do.  "Guys Eyes" (Preview it here) is what The Beach Boys would sound like if Brian Wilson wrote the music immediately after having his meltdown in the early seventies.  It starts with vocals put through probably 50 different effects.  An explosion of drums meets your ears.  It's so loud and powerful.  The vocals begin at the same time and are covered in effects.  At least the backing vocals are.  My own immediate reaction was not of disgust but of dislike of the very weird backing vocals.  There are about 2 or 3 different vocal parts happening all at the same time and it's almost overwhelming.  But your ear gets past the odd backing vocals, you can pick apart the main melody.  It's an extremely Brian Wilsonish melody.  It bounces all over the place and even the words are similar to The Beach Boys (at least on their simplistic side of things).  By the time you've found the pounded piano under the drums, the song progresses into the second section, a very odd repetition of the words "Need her" backed by sticks-and-stones drums and an accelerating and decelerating synth.  During the third part, which explodes just as much as the beginning, Noah's melody turns into a warped version of the first section's.  If you thought the beginning melody bounced around, you'll be surprised at how much control this man has over his voice.  It flitters and dances around the backing vocals and drum parts and really makes this song.  It's absolutely incredible.  The song then evolves into a half-yelled chant of "WHAT I WANT TO!  WHAT I WANT TO!" before ending on a quiet and delicate wind instrument, slowly dancing away into the next song, which is one of my absolute favorites.

"Taste" (Preview it here) begins delicately, borrowing the flute ending from "Guys Eyes" and applying it to the intro.  Suddenly more woody drums pound out with some sparse, indistinct vocals and then this wonderful electronic, buzzy bass plays out these single notes on the down-beats.  David starts singing: "Am I really all the things that are outside of me?"  With plenty and echo and reverb, he lays out this theme of wondering if everything outside of him is really what makes him who he is.  But then he goes into the chorus and Noah backs his words with a choir-boy-like voice that rings out with even more reverb and finishes the picture Dave started painting.  It's one of the most beautiful vocal accompaniments I've ever heard and I want to hear it over and over whenever I listen to this song.  The song goes through another verse and chorus before (arguably) the most amazing part of this album begins.  The final segment of "Taste" is a harmony between Dave and Noah of the same words that started the song "Am I really all the things that are outside of me?"  The transition from the chorus to this part is seamless and beautiful.  It is proof that these guys are in the same mind as those great musicians, singers, and songwriters from the 50s and 60s that we all know and love.  This song solidified this album as being one of my all-time favorites and close to (if not) my most favorite of all time.

And so we begin the last leg of the album.  And so I begin this paragraph with a small sigh.  At the time of this review, "Lion in a Coma" (Preview it here) still hasn't really clicked with me.  I typically love songs in weird time signatures (Radiohead's "Morning Bell," Tool's "The Grudge," etc) but this one just hasn't really connected.  It begins with a Jew harp (yes, that is what they are called) and leads into a rambling and bouncy beat in the time signature of 9/8.  David's voice is probably the best part of those song though.  While it does seem like he tried to cram too many words into each phrase during the verses, the chorus really opens up the song and becomes very enjoyable.  The bridge is similar in that it doesn't seem rushed and it even slows down at one point.  But it gets even better.  After the last "Please don't leave me!" part, Dave goes into this chant of "LION IN A COMA, LION IN A COMA..."  The lyrics would sound silly except for the backing synth parts which give it this very emotional feel.  This song really does blossom into something great.  It's just my least favorite track as of this moment.

But there's only so much you can take of fast-paced songs.  So on we go to the slowest song on the album, "No More Runnin" (Preview it here). A quiet chord is played before an underwater-piano plays a beautiful series of notes and a deep rolling bass slides into Dave's voice.  Aside from the title of the song, I haven't quite read into the lyrics enough to really understand what's going on in the words but there are some very beautiful phrases here.  "...With the torch of a firefly-lit tree." is a particular favorite of mine.  Dave's vocals remain un-accompanied until Noah backs him with an equally slow harmony that moves up and down with Dave's on "It's what I hoped fooooooooooooooor, WHOA!"  But the most beautiful part comes with the harmony on "No more runniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin!"  It almost angers me how amazing these melodies and harmonies are.  Each one is beautifully crafted into this blissful piece that form-fits to each song and completes the sound desired.  It's incredible.

But they couldn't leave you all with sleepy ears.  A "WOO!" begins "Brothersport" (Preview it here), an Africa-inspired, almost-reggae song that almost reminds me of "Tubthumping" by Chumbawamba except not awful.  This song is just... exciting.  Absolutely exciting.  The way Noah sings on this song is completely different from all the other songs and rolls along with all the shakers in the beginning before repeating "Sport brotha, support ya brotha" over and over until an EXPLOSION of drum and percussion rivalling Stomp.  There's an excess of vocals, yells and percussion that repeats over and over before stopping with a harmonized "MAAAAATT!!!"  Synths bound along with the light percussion while the duo pair voices and create an incredible harmony that builds and builds and builds until there's another EXPLOSION of drums and percussion and the song continues on for another minute.  This is a song to get your blood pumping and it does this with little effort.  You just can't help but bounce and dance and sing (although my version is more of an indistinct mumble of nonexistant words) along with this song.  It is hard to figure out the lyrics just because of the way they're chanted and sung by both Dave and Noah but the song is about Noah making sure his brother is OK and goes on with his life after their father's death a few years ago.  Even in this crock pot of sound, percussion, and chants there's a wonderful message to be heard.  And that's why this album is so amazing.

All 11 songs hold an incredible message that is equally matched by the music backing it.  And the best part is that the cohesiveness of every single song can be puzzle-pieced together to make an even larger picture.  This is an album built upon the message of hope for our close ones' futures, created by people who have a futuristic mindset but also hold strong to the roots which helped them get to where they are today, both musically and personally.  I cannot help but be ensconced in the sound of this album.  Merriweather Post Pavilion is an instant classic to be remembered for a very long time."

This is as best as I can describe how this album makes me feel.  It's incredibly captivating without being too complex (at least, not complex song structures or chord changes).  I followed Radiohead's In Rainbows from day one but I was more excited about this album when it was announced.  I'm not really sure why but I think it has to do with Animal Collective reinventing themselves with every release.  You can't pin down these guys' sound.

I hope you've enjoyed this.  There's 1 more album and it might take me a little while to do the summary for it.  I'm also sick right now so that will play into it.

Please stick around!