Animal Collective: Merriweather Post Pavilion (2LP) [DOMINO]

Why you'll love it

This deluxe Domino edition spreads the album across a 2LP set on 180g vinyl in a gatefold jacket with a download card. It was the most acclaimed album of 2009 on Metacritic, and Pitchfork named "My Girls" the best song of the year.

This edition

• 2LP set
• 180g vinyl
• Gatefold jacket
• Download card included
• Pressed in the USA

About the album

Merriweather Post Pavilion is named after the outdoor amphitheatre in Columbia, Maryland, where Avey Tare and Geologist went to concerts as kids. It's fitting, because the album sounds like a summer evening on the lawn with the whole crowd swaying, even if the instruments are mostly samplers.

With guitarist Deakin taking time away, the trio of Panda Bear, Avey Tare and Geologist wrote songs without guitar and leaned into the sampler-built sound of Panda Bear's Person Pitch, running everything through Roland SP-404 and SP-555 units and plenty of reverb. They recorded at Sweet Tea in Oxford, Mississippi, with co-producer Ben H. Allen, picked for his low-end work with Gnarls Barkley, and even set up PA systems in the studio to chase the energy of their shows. "My Girls" builds a hymn about wanting a home for your family out of shimmering arpeggios, "Summertime Clothes" bounces in the heat, "Bluish" drifts, and "Brother Sport" closes things with a joyful, drum-heavy stomp.

The album peaked at No. 13 on the Billboard 200, sold more than 200,000 copies by 2012, and its reverb-soaked psychedelic pop echoed through the decade that followed. Anyone who claims they weren't humming "My Girls" in 2009 is either fibbing or was very busy indeed.

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Tracklist

Listen

On Domino (cat# DNO 219), the 2009 album.