Okay, let me just come right out and say something. Something divisive.

i love the new Animal Collective album, Merriweather Post Pavilion. Okay?

Can you deal? Because i know that i just either lost or gained 20 Indie Points, depending on just how indie you are. But all of that could not be more irrelevant, because i simply love listening to these songs. i wake up with them in my head. i hum them all day long, until Nat finally puts one on so i will shut up. And he enjoys them, too, which must say something...

And i would also love to point out (like 99% of other people giving this album a good review) that i was never a fan of these guys before this. To be honest, i had only heard them fleetingly through someone i used to work with and was not particularly grabbed with what i heard, so i moved on. But then a few weeks ago i heard the track "Summertime Clothes" on KALX, and was deeply impressed with the under-watery vocals and marching backbeat. It lingered in my head until i looked up some of the (insanely romantic) lyrics and found out who it was. Soon after, through a different DJ, same radio station, i heard "Brother Sport". That was it, i was done.

i sat there on a chair, in a room, in an apartment building, in a city, in a state, on a continent, on a globe, and just sort of.... went away. Somewhere else. And it was nice. It was mighty nice. Went and bought the album while up in Berkeley on a mini vacation and could not be more glad i did. "My Girls" is insanely listenable, dance-y, catchy as catchy can be. (wow, i had to really command my hands not to type "catch-as-catch-can" right there; funny how sometimes the body can seem to go on manual override.) Other notable tracks are "Daily Routine" (tinkly, subtle) and "Also Frightened", which i didn't like at first because the chorus is sort of... aggressive seeming. But now i can't get enough, of course. It is almost Beatles-esque. "In the Flowers" builds to a sweet and melancholy almost-urgency before it fades away.

All in all, it just feels rather... joyous. i can't even deny it. It leaves you with an open, quiet feeling, like stripping away the detritus and starting fresh, somehow. Although, having had a listen to some of their back-catalog, i will be brutally honest here and say with some certainty that i am not going to run out and buy any of their other albums. But it's okay, because for now, with this album, i am totally drinkin' the Kool-Aid, and enjoying every last otherworldly sip.