Animal Collective - thoughts from a n00b

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
The last one, Strawberry Jam, bears a passing resemblance. Not much more, to my ears. Otherwise, no. Not even remotely.
 
No one else likes 'Winter Wonder Land' from Strawberry as much as me. :(

Fireworks iz da bizzidy bomb too, and Peacebone is goodz.

I will listen to Rev Green in a few, as I don't remember it.
 
I gave the Rabbit track (whatever the fuck it's called) a listen and couldn't make it through the whole way. What the fuck was that?
 
martha said:
Oh crap I like this album!!

The others aren't like it at all, are they?
Click to expand...

Not AC's, no.

But you should check out Panda Bear's solo album Person Pitch sometime. It bears the closest resemblance to Merriweather Post Pavillion.
 
Coolness is having courage, courage to do what's right. I'll try to remember always, just to have a good time.
 
Coolness is having courage, courage to get in armed fights. I'll try to remember always, just to commit knife crime.
 
MPP is the most overrated album I have ever heard. There are interesting moments in there, but most of it seems like experimentation and random noise for the sake of having it.

I just can't believe the reviews this thing is getting - critics seem to think it is one of the best albums of the DECADE!
 
Heard Merriweather Post Pavilion two days ago... it neeeds another listen. We'll see.
 
thelaj said:
MPP is the most overrated album I have ever heard. There are interesting moments in there, but most of it seems like experimentation and random noise for the sake of having it.

I just can't believe the reviews this thing is getting - critics seem to think it is one of the best albums of the DECADE!
Click to expand...

You obviously never heard their previous albums or noticed those review scores.
 
Here are my thoughts on whether the album is one of the best of the decade:

It's too early to tell. But probably.
 
Say what you will about Pitchfork, it's a great consolidated source of news and I've learned about a lot of artists and albums I've come to love from reading it.
 
Yeah, Pitchfork does offer informative and well-written reviews. I actually get a sense of the album from Pitchfork, unlike something like Rolling Stone.
 
The problem with PopMatters is that anybody can submit a review, and most of them wind up being written by fans of the band in question. It gets really taxing, after a while. Still, because of this, there are more reviews there than just about anywhere else, on a daily basis. I've heard about plenty of shit bands to go along with the great ones, via PopMatters, but I'm always able to find something new. A great resource, as long as you're willing to try, before you buy.

An interesting, AC-related article. Nothing too groundbreaking or fresh, but whatever. Kind of sums up the hoo-ha:

Stuck in the middle with you: Between pop and pretension | Music | guardian.co.uk
 
Oh, and Reynolds name-checks Dan Deacon, in that piece. Deacon's at least as good an example of this "middlebrow" phenomenon (if it can be said actually to exist, as Reynolds sees it) as is Animal Collective. Spiderman of the Rings veered wildly from manic experimentalism to manic classicism to manic manicness. Magnificent. I'm looking more forward to his Bromst than to getting laid, when my girlfriend gets back home from Buenos Aires/Lima. No shit.
 
If you shout... said:
The problem with PopMatters is that anybody can submit a review, and most of them wind up being written by fans of the band in question.
Click to expand...

This actually isn't entirely true, you actually have to be a "staff member" to write reviews, or any of the features, on their site. The application and screening process may be simple compared to other sites, I wouldn't know as I haven't tried, but it's not as if any and everyone can just email in a review and they'll publish it. It's not as if it's exactly "difficult" to become a writer on most any online music site either, honestly. That's the great thing about the internet, anyone can get their opinion out.

I have no issues with fans writing reviews, and don't even see the relevance. Having people who are "fans" write reviews makes more sense to me than having some dipshit who knows nothing about them write the review, or even worse, someone who absolutely hates an artist writing the review. Similarly, essentially every other "music critic" I know of, be it online, magazines, whatever, all generally review the stuff they like or want to review. One of the reasons I love Filter Magazine is that they usually will only post reviews if they have good things to say about the album. Similarly, one of the reasons I started hating Spin magazine years back is it became obvious they started hiring writers who were not music fans, but just had "writing experience", to handle the reviews, and you thus got horrible reviews for albums that they'd later rank in their "Top 10 of the year" list. None of it made any sense.
 
I know what you mean, on all fronts. You're 200% right, regarding the "application" process. But, really...it is alarmingly easy to get something on PopMatters. I say "alarmingly" because I read so many of the reviews, and if you read them all, you see that literacy isn't always even a priority, let alone a necessity.

Regarding fans, I have written poorly--the problem isn't with fans, per se, but rather with overly fannish/perspectiveless writing. I know that "fannish" is an impotent word, but bear with me, as I think you know what I mean. Love it or hate it, art criticism necessitates a sense of perspective and lack of bias. This is aesthetically debatable, of course. I mean, should this be the case? Maybe. Maybe not.

The fact, though, is that this is the currently prescribed role of criticism, whether for better or worse. I really do know what you mean, regarding fans/non-fans writing album reviews, and I think it's important to point out that both perspectives have both pluses and minuses. C'est la vie.

And I'm not hating on PopMatters. Like I said, it's a very useful site. It's just that I don't think that the quality of writing and criticism (not to mention its journalistic integrity) really measures up, most of the time.

For the opposite end of the spectrum, see :: Home | Cokemachineglow.com. Don't say that I didn't warn you. Now, again--that's not a useless site. Much like PopMatters, I discover tons of music, on CMG. But, my fucking fuck...these guys (pretty much all guys, naturally) are absurd.
 
I know what you mean about the negative aspect of not fans, but "fanboyz", writing reviews. You can definitely get some overly bloated scores as well, or people cut a lot more slack than they should, etc. It's ok if you're well versed enough in the band to be able to pick out things like that, but it sucks when you only know a little of the band, go and buy an album, and end up bummed out because it's not nearly as good as you'd had it described to you.

I may actually consider trying to write some stuff on Popmatters. :hmm:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

T
A quick thought on NLOTH
Replies
26
Views
3K
AndrewCowley
A
LemonMelon
Desert Island XI - QUARANTINE ISLAND - Group 2 Listening Thread
4 5 6
Replies
175
Views
6K
namkcuR
N
A
The little stranger chapter 12
Replies
0
Views
727
annj
A
A
The little stranger Chapter 6
Replies
0
Views
550
annj
A
A
The little Stranger chapter 11
Replies
0
Views
744
annj
A

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom