Animal Collective

My friend Jon records really interesting Cd's for me. I don't like all of them, for example I had to get used to "Sung Tongs" from Animal Collective. It was too psychotic for me, really weird urban mushroom folk music, although I was attracted to it in some strange sense. Last year he gave me the solo album "Person Pitch" by AC band member Panda Bear. I absolutely love it, Brian Wilson-like hypnotic drony golden pop music with beautiful loops and a fair deal of healthy weirdness. I like the rawness of the album, the material is not 100% developed but that has its charm. This made me ready for "Merriweather Post Pavilion" the new AC album which I bought on Itunes last week. The songs are much more developed and worked out compared with Panda Bear's album. It has a distinctive sixties feel although the music is also contemporary, a bit like Beatles and Brian Wilson with samplers instead of guitars. The songs are melancholic but make me happy too, darkness with a golden shiny line, it is still weird but accessible.

I had a similair experience with Stereolab, another band that Jon introduced me too. I was very irritated with the repetitiveness but at a certain moment it hit me and I started loving it. Funny how some music is great from the beginning and other stuff has to grow on you.

Animal Collective