Animal Collective / MERRIWEATHER POST PAVILION

5th anniversary edition. Merriweather Post Pavilion is the ninth studio album from Animal Collective, recorded with Ben Allen in Oxford, Mississippi. After listening to this record, however, it’s clear that Animal Collective have transcended the everyday realities of numbers, locations and people and arrived at a spectacular, unique place. Animal Collective have made a universal record that makes the same beautiful sense on headphones by day, or soundtracking the small hours of the morning / night, or, you suspect, stretched out in a field on your back. Whether a state of mind, or a rest stop somewhere along the way, Merriweather Post Pavilion magnificently redefines your sense of direction. Merriweather Post Pavilion is, in every sense, a classic album. This record feels like a defining moment for Animal Collective, their generation and these times. Linear, wild and beautiful it’s the sound of a band waiting, with arms open wide, to tell you about what they’ve found. And it’s something pretty special.