CD reviews

Animal Collective
Merriweather Post Pavilion
(Domino)
*8.6*
Goes well with: Gang Gang Dance, Black Dice, Battles

Where some acts carefully chart their career progression with a calligrapher’s touch, Animal Collective scribbles all over the page with neon markers. It’s this boundless, childlike enthusiasm that reflects the most primal of human emotions in their music, and on Merriweather Post Pavilion, they’ve finally advanced with enough grace and sophistication to appeal to the masses.

What’s miraculous about the album is how it’s more accessible and more progressive than anything else they’ve recorded. On “Bluish,” AC have rejuvenated the concept of a simple love song by submerging it underwater, and with “Lion in a Coma,” they’ve placed a didgeridoo loop upon a melodic carousel that threatens to spin off its foundation and into the cosmos.

But it’s “My Girls” that’s the killer here, despite sharing as much in common with The Killers’ “Human” as it does with The Beach Boys. As Panda Bear (Noah Lennox) sings in the joyful chorus, “I don’t mean / To seem like I care about material things / Like social status / I just want / Four walls and adobe slats / For my girls.” As the new father and husband grows up ever so slightly, he’s assuming responsibility with such wide-eyed exuberance that it’s hard to believe he’s anything more than a kid himself.
—Todd Kroviak

Madlib
Beat Konducta V.5-6
(Stones Throw)
*7.5*
Goes well with: Oh No, MF Doom, J Dilla, marijuana

As the legend goes, Madlib the Beat Konducta sits in a muggy, windowless L.A. basement behind a massive cloud of weed smoke, armed with his handy Boss SP-303 Dr. Sample, an extensive collection of rare vinyl and a digital eight-track mixing board. Pumping out short instrumentals at the rate of two or three per hour, the recordings spawned from these lengthy sessions shame the work of 99 percent of producers in the game.

Even after countless official and unofficial beat mixes, relocating his studio and enduring the untimely death of friend and collaborator J Dilla, ’Lib still maintains a higher level of quality control than virtually any other hip-hop artist. Complaining that his Beat Konducta series is monotonous is like saying the same thing about Brian Eno’s ambient work—it functions well as background music, but close listening reveals the subtle touch of a compositional genius.

Beat Konducta V. 5-6 works best as a display of his creative process. Functioning on sheer musical intuition, he guides the set through soul jams (“For My Mans”), minimal street-level bangers (“In Jah’s Hands”), Blaxploitation-soundtrack tributes (“The String”) and placid, psychedelic pop (“Two for Pay Jay”). And that’s only within the first 10 songs.

It might not be the smoothest mix in the world, and he’s made more captivating albums, but this volume arguably offers the most comprehensive look into the brilliant mind of hip-hop’s most complete Renaissance man.
—Todd Kroviak

Love is All
A Hundred Things Keep Me Up at Night
(What’s Your Rupture?)
*8.0*
Goes well with: New York hipsters, Mr. Tube & The Flying Objects, James White

When certain music publications hailed Love is All’s Nine Times the Same Song in 2006, I was hesitant, turned off by the inarticulate praise heaped upon it by reviewers. So I ignored it. That was stupid.

What I missed—besides belonging to the cadre of cool kids enjoying the Swedish quintet—was some genuinely fun and enjoyable punk-inspired pop. In hindsight, the generic descriptions offered by the press failed to capture Love is All’s wide net of influences because their sound defies easy categorization.

The lo-fi jangle-pop of their sophomore outing draws as much from ’80s new wave as it does from dance-punk, but instead of failing at the mixture like other acts, they happily embrace the genres, throwing in skronking horns and choral singing. Think James White and the Blacks as played by Tilly and the Wall and you’re in the neighborhood.

There’s a dilapidated feel to the album—not the sinister soundscapes of some vague apocalyptic future, but like the band is too busy enjoying themselves to tidy up. A Hundred Things has a distinct Scandinavian optimism that’s shared by artists from I’m From Barcelona to Sigur Rós, and Love is All sincerely seem like they’re having fun, shouting into their mics with huge smiles stretching across their faces.
—David Tow