Animal Collective- Merriweather Post Pavilion (***½)

Musical progress is important.

If it wasn't, Kurt Cobain would have been just another drug addict, The Kinks would have been content rewriting blues licks all day long, and no one would despise hair metal as much as they do now. Granted this is more important to some artists than others, but the idea of progress eventually leads a select few in the musical world to really "push the envelope" when it comes to creating cutting edge and innovative sounds.

While such experiments might come across as half-baked and alien at first, progress isn't without growing pains. As such, it's important to recognize those taking risks, the ones hell-bent on redefining the sonic palate. For this, look no further than indie darlings Animal Collective, whose new album Merriweather Post Pavilion is already being touted as one of the landmark records of the decade. The musical revolving door of Avey Tare (David Portner), Panda Bear (Noah Lennox), Deakin (Josh Dibb), and Geologist (Brian Weitz) seems to have pushed past the off-kilter and busy arrangements on 2006's Strawberry Jam, into something far more lucid and spacious.

At its bare essence, Merriweather Post Pavilion is an electronic fantasia of hazy synthesizers, delay soaked guitar, busy tribal drumming and Portner's distinctively wavering vocals. This is all evident from the first track, "In The Flowers," an expansive song that marries splashing electronics, imploding feedback and ascending guitar patterns to really illustrate Animal Collective's passion for exploratory arrangements.

Yet, both musical and vocal hooks don't unfold in the traditional sense on Merriweather Post Pavilion. Whether it's the staggered counterpoint, rolling synthesizers and hand claps on "My Girls," to the bouncy delivery of "Summertime Clothes," Animal Collective warp poppy aesthetics into twisting world jumbles and organized chaos.

Nowhere is this clearer than on the album's stand out, "Bluish." A bizarre hybrid of pulsing beats, liquid melodies, and shuffling electronics, "Bluish" straddles the line between gentle Beach Boy-harmonies and reverb drenched soundscapes. The result is a song that highlights Animal Collective's strengths: Fearless experimentation coupled with a strong knowledge of pop structure.

Yet while Merriweather Post Pavilion exhibits a dreamy psychedelic pop sensibility throughout its 11 tracks, it's certainly not an album that will spawn any Top 40 hits anytime soon. Like most Animal Collective releases, the band gets into trouble when they let their indulgences get the better of them. Cuts like "Taste" meander over a sea of blips and squeals, underplayed with clacking drum loops and shuddering rhythms. While the band's Philip Glass-meets-The Beatles mentality often leads to surprising results, sometimes a little more structure goes a long way.

As a whole, the album holds too few tracks that reach a music apex, as Animal Collective seem intent on pushing their sound into a murky, and sometimes monotonous, miasma. "Lion In A Coma" begins promisingly enough with winding vocals and thick bass, but ends before it really takes off. For some reason, Animal Collective has associated musical tension with time signature changes, which ultimately makes these compositions feel more sterile then they should.

This is perhaps the most frustrating aspect of Merriweather Post Pavilion, many of these tracks are not fully formed.

Most of these songs feel like scraps of musical ideas that have been painstakingly jigsawed together, rather than harmoniously layered. Hanging on high-pitched samples, "Brothersport" provides a carefree and airy atmosphere but feels more like a sketch than a fleshed out arrangement. Elsewhere, the gang harmonies and plodding pace of "No More Runnin'" feels like an extended bridge or midsection that's gone on too long, a problem that seems to plague the second half of the album.

While it's clear that the band is trying to get audiences to approach music and melody in an unconventional way, it's also disappointing to see a very detail oriented band produce tracks that feel incomplete. So, despite the fact that it's far from the "album of the decade," Merriweather Post Pavilion provides fans with an intricately crafted listening experience.

However, Animal Collective has made an album that, while more accessible than a majority of their back catalog, still defies traditional genre classification. Nobody is currently tinkering with the types of sounds that Animal Collective are, and that's a sure sign this band is pushing toward something bigger with their sound.

While jarring upon first listen, Merriweather Post Pavilion is still a lush and detailed album from some of the most fearless men in the music world. Some added focus could tighten up their arrangements further, but that is ultimately the price of progress: Sometimes trailblazers and innovators stumble onto something special, but they'll make some mistakes along the way. For Animal Collective and Merriweather Post Pavilion, it's just a case of growing pains as they look towards the future of what contemporary music can be.

Sounds Like: Philip Glass failing to play The White Album (The Beatles)

Key Cuts: In The Flowers, My Girls, Bluish

Author's Note: This review appears in a recent issue of the Sonoma State Star. As this is the author's own writing and this is his own blog, in addition to holding the position of A&E Editor for the Sonoma State Star, he posts it here with express consent of himself. Duh.

Click on the artwork to sample some of Merriweather Post Pavilion for yourself!