Animal Collective and Brian Wilson
I was riding my bike yesterday through the streets of Manhattan and I had on “Merriweather Post Pavilion” with the sound turned low and, as I listened, it struck me, and as I tweeted, that of all the bands that talk about Pet Sounds and talk about being inspired by Brian Wilson, Animal Collective seems the closest.
Obviously the rhythms and the arrangements are different. But the vocal harmonies and the timbre of the voices and the way that the singers are not natural singers so that nothing ever sounds perfect but then it’s arranged in this sort of nouveau melodic way that is kind of oblong and lateral and not obvious. It reminded me of Pet Sounds.
So then, of course, I go back and try to find some old reviews of the record that made the comparison and, as in the case of many great ideas, I immediately found a ton of them that make the reference. Which is testament to the “all great minds” idea.
MPP will always remind me of last winter. Of pulling up to the house in Kerhonkson with snow everywhere, all by my lonesome, and trudging through the snow in the dark, and then making some microwave popcorn and building a fire and watching some old movie and then crawling up to bed and avoiding the ghosts and reading a little bit of a book and then falling asleep, strangely content. Lonely but strangely content. And driving to Kingston to get stuff from Target.
But listening back to it months after its left the permanent rotation it still retains that buoyancy and that resiliency. And again, reminds me strongly of Brian Wilson and Pet Sounds and the ways that non-obvious melodies can be reworked into something more palatable and intuitive.
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Wendy
