Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion

Domino Records

January 6th, 2009.

The psychedelically swirling worlds of Animal Collective's eighth studio album, Merriweather Post Pavillion, drowsily, though joyfully, saunters through layers of unbridled haze - a jungle adorned with kaleidoscopic shrubs, vines, trees, and leaves. Something of a modern day Pet Sounds, Merriweather Post Pavillion feels like a fresh start; a revolutionary record. 15 years removed and its vibrancy has only become more potent. The record is named in tribute to the outdoor venue of the same name, Merriweather Post Pavilion, based in Symphony Woods, Columbia, Maryland. 

Dazed in a field. Staring up at the never-ending sky. Random shapes shimmer forth. The longer you stare, the more vibrant they become - whether they're actually there or not is anybody’s guess. The waves of the world seem to be at high-tide tonight. The breeze a mellow skin temperature - a caress of an indifferent kind. There, but not there. A forgetful reminder. Outside of shape. Outside of time. Outside of itself. Reversed and relayed over and over again. The fabric of reality sits asymmetrically skewed. Offset and out of sight - warmly warped. Stumbling forward with a melancholic wisp. Time quietly ticks on in revelry - time doesn’t effect time. An infinite resource of intangible existence. Unbeatable at it's own game. A burden to some and a brother to others. 

Underwater wavering. Bubbling. Brewing. Blissfully drowning. Content with the way things have fallen apart. It is what it is, and that's the way it shall be. Removed from results, life becomes an incredibly carefree free-for-all. A chaotically ordered space for the infinite to play itself out.

Merriweather Post Pavilion taps into a space where the finish line falls out of sight - all there is is now.

Am I really all the things that are outside of me?