''Merriweather Post Pavilion'' is the eighth studio album by American
experimental pop
Experimental pop is pop music that cannot be categorized within traditional musical boundaries or which attempts to push elements of existing popular forms into new areas. It may incorporate experimental techniques such as musique concrète, al ...
group
Animal Collective
Animal Collective is an American experimental pop band formed in Baltimore, Maryland. Its members consist of Avey Tare (David Portner), Panda Bear (Noah Lennox), Geologist (Brian Weitz), and Deakin (Josh Dibb). The band's work is characterized ...
, released in January 2009 on
Domino Records. The group recorded the album as a trio featuring members
Panda Bear
The giant panda (''Ailuropoda melanoleuca''), also known as the panda bear (or simply the panda), is a bear species endemic to China. It is characterised by its bold black-and-white coat and rotund body. The name "giant panda" is sometimes use ...
(Noah Lennox),
Avey Tare
David Michael Portner (born April 24, 1979), also known by his moniker Avey Tare, is a musician and songwriter who co-founded the American experimental pop band Animal Collective. He has released three solo albums, as well as three collaborative ...
(Dave Portner) and
Geologist
A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, althou ...
(Brian Weitz), with co-production by
Ben H. Allen
Ben H. Allen (III.) is an American Grammy Award-winning record producer, mixer and songwriter, based in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. He has produced and mixed records by artists such as Walk the Moon, Animal Collective, Gnarls Barkley, Kaiser ...
. It is titled after the
Maryland venue of the same name, where Portner and Weitz attended concerts in their youth.
''Merriweather Post Pavilion'' saw the band continue to explore the
electronica
Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that started in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mostly used to r ...
-based sound of their previous album ''
Strawberry Jam
Fruit preserves are preparations of fruits whose main preserving agent is sugar and sometimes acid, often stored in glass jars and used as a condiment or spread.
There are many varieties of fruit preserves globally, distinguished by the method ...
'', but favours a lusher, multi-layered production style compared than its predecessor. Drawing sonically from Panda Bear's 2007 solo album ''
Person Pitch
''Person Pitch'' is the third solo album by American recording artist Noah Lennox under his alias Panda Bear, released on March 20, 2007, by Paw Tracks. Departing stylistically from his prior work as both a member of Animal Collective and a solo a ...
'', and working largely without guitars, the band made extensive use of
samplers and
synthesizer
A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...
s as primary instruments, as well as prominent
reverb
Reverberation (also known as reverb), in acoustics, is a persistence of sound, after a sound is produced. Reverberation is created when a sound or signal is reflected causing numerous reflections to build up and then decay as the sound is abso ...
. The band also installed
PA systems
A public address system (or PA system) is an electronic system comprising microphones, amplifiers, loudspeakers, and related equipment. It increases the apparent volume (loudness) of a human voice, musical instrument, or other acoustic sound sou ...
in the studio in an attempt to replicate the energy of their live shows.
The album peaked at No. 13 on the
''Billboard'' 200 and No. 2 on the US
Top Independent Albums
The Independent Albums chart (previously titled Top Independent Albums) ranks the highest-selling independent music albums and extended plays (EPs) in the United States, as compiled by Nielsen SoundScan and published weekly by ''Billboard'' magaz ...
charts. According to review aggregate site
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, ''Merriweather'' was the most critically acclaimed album of 2009, and went on to sell over 200,000 copies by 2012. It spawned the singles "
My Girls" (named the Best Song of 2009 by ''
Pitchfork
A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves.
The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...
'' and ''
Slant Magazine
''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York ...
''), "
Summertime Clothes", and "
Brother Sport". The album's reverb-heavy
psychedelic pop
Psychedelic pop (or acid pop) is pop music that contains musical characteristics associated with psychedelic music. Developing in the late 1960s, elements included " trippy" features such as fuzz guitars, tape manipulation, backwards recording, ...
sound would exert a wide influence on music of the subsequent decade.
Background
After recording ''
Strawberry Jam
Fruit preserves are preparations of fruits whose main preserving agent is sugar and sometimes acid, often stored in glass jars and used as a condiment or spread.
There are many varieties of fruit preserves globally, distinguished by the method ...
'' in January 2007, guitarist
Deakin (Josh Dibb) decided he would take time off from the group for undisclosed personal reasons. As a result, the group went about writing a new batch of songs to be played without guitar. The group debuted nine of these songs, most of which would later appear on the album, in May 2007 and toured with them through 2008.
To record their eighth studio album, Animal Collective sought the services of
Ben H. Allen
Ben H. Allen (III.) is an American Grammy Award-winning record producer, mixer and songwriter, based in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. He has produced and mixed records by artists such as Walk the Moon, Animal Collective, Gnarls Barkley, Kaiser ...
as
co-producer
A film producer is a person who oversees film production. Either employed by a production company or working Independent film, independently, producers plan and coordinate various aspects of film production, such as selecting the script, coordina ...
. In an interview with the ''
Baltimore City Paper
''Baltimore City Paper'' was a free alternative weekly newspaper published in Baltimore, Maryland, founded in 1977 by Russ Smith and Alan Hirsch. The most recent owner was the Baltimore Sun Media Group, which purchased the paper in 2014 from Ti ...
'', Allen stated that the band chose him due to "my work with
Gnarls Barkley
Gnarls Barkley are an American soul duo, composed of singer-songwriter CeeLo Green and producer Danger Mouse. They released their debut studio album, '' St. Elsewhere'', in 2006. It contained their hit single "Crazy", which peaked at number two ...
, and wanted my low-end expertise".
[Cummings, Raymond.]
''Merriweather Post Pavilion'' Behind-The-Scenes With Ben H. Allen
". ''Baltimore City Paper
''Baltimore City Paper'' was a free alternative weekly newspaper published in Baltimore, Maryland, founded in 1977 by Russ Smith and Alan Hirsch. The most recent owner was the Baltimore Sun Media Group, which purchased the paper in 2014 from Ti ...
''. January 15, 2009. Retrieved on November 13, 2010. According to band-member Brian Weitz, while "
at was the original attraction", Animal Collective was also impressed by his eclectic music tastes, "
seemed to be somebody that technically knew how to work in
rban hip-hop but was open-minded to other styles as well... knowing that he'd been involved in a lot of the
Bad Boy Records
Bad Boy Records (or Bad Boy Entertainment) is an American record label founded in 1993 by rapper Sean "Puffy" Combs. It operates as an imprint of Epic Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment. It has been home to many artists, including ...
stuff from the '90s was exciting to us".
[Doyle, Tom.]
Animal Collective: Recording Merriweather Post Pavilion
. ''Sound on Sound
''Sound on Sound'' is an independently owned monthly music technology magazine published by SOS Publications Group, based in Cambridge, United Kingdom. The magazine includes product tests of electronic musical performance and recording devices, a ...
''. May 2009. Retrieved on November 13, 2010. Subsequently, the band and Allen met over a few conference calls on
Skype
Skype () is a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for VoIP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also has instant messaging, file transfer, deb ...
in January 2008.
[
]
Recording
The band recorded the album February 2008 at Sweet Tea Recording Studio
Sweet Tea Recording Studio is a 24-track recording studio in Oxford, Mississippi owned by producer Dennis Herring and operated by Dawn Palladino. It is located near the Oxford square and has clients ranging from Buddy Guy to Modest Mouse.
Musici ...
in Oxford, Mississippi
Oxford is a city and college town in the U.S. state of Mississippi. Oxford lies 75 miles (121 km) south-southeast of Memphis, Tennessee, and is the county seat of Lafayette County. Founded in 1837, it was named after the British city of Oxf ...
, with mixing completed in June or July of that year at Chase Park Transduction in Athens, Georgia.[ Drawing inspiration from Lennox's 2007 ]Panda Bear
The giant panda (''Ailuropoda melanoleuca''), also known as the panda bear (or simply the panda), is a bear species endemic to China. It is characterised by its bold black-and-white coat and rotund body. The name "giant panda" is sometimes use ...
album ''Person Pitch
''Person Pitch'' is the third solo album by American recording artist Noah Lennox under his alias Panda Bear, released on March 20, 2007, by Paw Tracks. Departing stylistically from his prior work as both a member of Animal Collective and a solo a ...
'', the band used samplers as its primary instruments, specifically the Roland SP-404
The Roland SP-404 Sampling Workstation is a discontinued sampler made by Roland Corporation. Released in 2005, it is part of the SP family and successor to where Boss Corporation’s SP-505 sampler left off. The sampler was succeeded by the S ...
and SP-555 samplers; of the former, Brian Weitz
Brian Ross Weitz (born March 26, 1979), also known by his stage name Geologist, is a musician best known as a member of the experimental pop
Experimental pop is pop music that cannot be categorized within traditional musical boundaries or w ...
said "it's become an instrument that we know really well. It's really user‑friendly. You can do things in real time on it."[ The group also used synthesizers such as the ]Roland
Roland (; frk, *Hrōþiland; lat-med, Hruodlandus or ''Rotholandus''; it, Orlando or ''Rolando''; died 15 August 778) was a Frankish military leader under Charlemagne who became one of the principal figures in the literary cycle known as the ...
SH2 and Novation Bass Station (for bassier sounds) and Juno 60
The Roland Juno-60 is an analog synthesizer manufactured by the Roland Corporation between 1982 and 1984. It followed the Juno-6, an almost identical synthesizer released months earlier. The Juno synthesizers introduced Roland's digitally contro ...
(for higher melodic lines and arpeggiated parts).[ The Eventide H3000 Ultra‑Harmonizer also helped the group define the sound of the album: according to Allen, "those guys fell in love with the H3000. ..A lot of times, with the piano and acoustic guitar stuff, we would run it through the H3000 and create a pitched‑up and a pitched‑down version and mix it back in so it'd have an otherworldly sort of feel.][ Many of the percussion sounds were played acoustically by Lennox, then layered and processed through the samplers' effects units.][
Privacy during the sessions was paramount for the group, and a significant factor for choosing Sweet Tea. According to Allen, "During the whole month we worked on the album, the only people there were me, my assistant, and the band. No phones or computers... It's a small town, we were in the South, no one knew who they were. It was nonstop ]ork
Ork or ORK may refer to:
* Ork (folklore), a mountain demon of Tyrol folklore
* ''Ork'' (video game), a 1991 game for the Amiga and Atari ST systems
* Ork (''Warhammer 40,000''), a fictional species in the ''Warhammer 40,000'' universe
* ''Ork!'' ...
.[ The studio also offered other advantages; Dave Portner felt Sweet Tea was "the vibiest studio I’ve ever been in. It feels like you're making music in a living room that just happens to have a Neve 8038 desk in it".][ Further, since Animal Collective planned to record a sample-heavy album, the studio's large control room was ideal; Weitz stated, "we wanted to do most of the tracking in the same room as the engineer".][ On ''Merriweather Post Pavilion'', the band wanted to capture a live sound on record, just as it intended to on '']Strawberry Jam
Fruit preserves are preparations of fruits whose main preserving agent is sugar and sometimes acid, often stored in glass jars and used as a condiment or spread.
There are many varieties of fruit preserves globally, distinguished by the method ...
''. However, recording methods for the two albums were very different, in Noah Lennox's words, "we went about them in totally opposite ways". While on ''Strawberry Jam'' they worked with a live foundation (over which they added few overdubs), on ''Merriweather...'' they "tracked pretty much every sound individually on its own channel, so that we'd have complete control over every sound in the mixing process".[O'Connell, Sharon.]
Animal Collective on 'Merriweather Post Pavilion'
". '' Time Out''. January 6, 2009. Retrieved on November 13, 2010.
The band adopted a number of unorthodox recording practices. For instance, Animal Collective set up its PA systems in the control room in an attempt to replicate the group's live sound; Weitz said, "since so much of he album
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (pronoun), an English pronoun
* He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ
* He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
* He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...
was electronic and sample-based, we used those PA speakers to make the samples".[
]
Artwork
The artwork features an example of illusory motion
The term illusory motion, also known as motion illusion, is an optical illusion in which a static image appears to be moving due to the cognition, cognitive effects of interacting color contrasts, object shapes, and position. Beta movement, Appar ...
, a type of optical illusion
Within visual perception, an optical illusion (also called a visual illusion) is an illusion caused by the visual system and characterized by a visual perception, percept that arguably appears to differ from reality. Illusions come in a wide v ...
which is based on the works of Japanese psychologist Akiyoshi Kitaoka
is a Professor of Psychology at the College of Letters, Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, Japan.
In 1984, he received a BSc from the Department of Biology, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan, where he studied animal psychology (burrowing behavior ...
. It was compiled and packaged by Robert Carmichael of SEEN studio, who has worked for Animal Collective before and after.
Release
''Merriweather Post Pavilion'' was announced in a cryptic update to Animal Collective's official website on October 5, 2008, an update which initially caused a great deal of confusion about the nature of the news. The site was updated again on October 8 with a link to a second page showing a video of the track listing, which was followed by an official announcement regarding the nature of the news on October 10. Prior to the album's official release, a number of promotional listening parties were held in various cities across the United States and United Kingdom.
On November 18, the track "Brother Sport" was leaked onto the internet by way of its inclusion in a French music podcast. The track was subsequently posted on many blogs, including Pitchfork
A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves.
The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...
, but was later removed virtually everywhere by the international internet policing company Web Sheriff
Web Sheriff is an anti-piracy company based in the United Kingdom that provides intellectual property, copyright and privacy rights protection services. The company monitors various websites that host links to downloads of music and film. Web ...
.[Rolling Stone Magazine, "Battle Over Online Piracy Gets a Sheriff", RS 1077, April 2009] On November 24, it was incorrectly reported that the band Grizzly Bear
The grizzly bear (''Ursus arctos horribilis''), also known as the North American brown bear or simply grizzly, is a population or subspecies of the brown bear inhabiting North America.
In addition to the mainland grizzly (''Ursus arctos horri ...
had leaked the track through their blog. Ed Droste
Edward Droste (born October 22, 1978) is an American singer-songwriter and musician, formerly of the rock band Grizzly Bear. The group began as the solo effort of Droste with the release of 2004's '' Horn of Plenty'', originally released on Kanin ...
of Grizzly Bear later clarified that they had only reposted the track as many other blogs had done.[ A low-quality vinyl rip of the album leaked online on December 25, 2008.
The album was released on vinyl in the United States on January 6, 2009. It was released on both vinyl and CD in the UK on January 12, and on CD and digitally in the United States on January 20.] Peaking at number 13 on the United States ''Billboard'' 200, by 2012 the album had sold over 199,000 copies, more than twice as many as the group's previous top-seller, ''Strawberry Jam''. In 2009. It was awarded a silver certification from the Independent Music Companies Association
The Independent Music Companies Association (IMPALA), originally the Independent Music Publishers and Labels Association, is a non-profit trade association established in 2000 to help European independent record labels represent their agenda a ...
which indicated sales of at least 30,000 copies throughout Europe.
Reception
''Merriweather Post Pavilion'' was met with universal acclaim. At Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received an average
In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...
score of 89, based on 36 reviews. ''Slant Magazine
''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York ...
'' and ''Uncut
Uncut may refer to:
* ''Uncut'' (film), a 1997 Canadian docudrama film by John Greyson about censorship
* ''Uncut'' (magazine), a monthly British magazine with a focus on music, which began publishing in May 1997
* '' BET: Uncut'', a Black Enter ...
'' gave the album five out of five stars. Stephen Troussé of ''Uncut'' wrote that the album "feels like one of the landmark American albums of the century so far." Andrzej Lukowski of ''Drowned in Sound
''Drowned in Sound'', sometimes abbreviated to ''DiS'', is a UK-based music webzine financed by artist management company Silentway. Founded by editor Sean Adams, the site features reviews, news, interviews, and discussion forums.
History
''D ...
'' wrote "Is ''Merriweather Post Pavilion'' the flawless album that it's been willed to be? Taken as a whole I'd say it's pretty damn close." Among mixed reviews, Michael Patrick Brady of ''The Boston Phoenix
''The Phoenix'' (stylized as ''The Phœnix'') was the name of several alternative weekly periodicals published in the United States of America by Phoenix Media/Communications Group of Boston, Massachusetts, including the ''Portland Phoenix'' a ...
'' gave the album two and a half stars out of four, arguing that the album "lacks the playfulness and spontaneity that endeared so many to this group". By contrast, Andy Beta of ''Spin
Spin or spinning most often refers to:
* Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning
* Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis
* Spin (propaganda), an intentionally b ...
'' praised the album's "startling, pounding, effulgencegent sonic template" for combining many of the group's previous touchstones, including harmonic Beach Boys
A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc shell ...
pop, African tribal chants, minimal techno
Minimal techno is a subgenre of techno music. It is characterized by a stripped-down aesthetic that exploits the use of repetition and understated development. Minimal techno is thought to have been originally developed in the early 1990s by Detro ...
, psychedelia
Psychedelia refers to the psychedelic subculture of the 1960s and the psychedelic experience. This includes psychedelic art, psychedelic music and style of dress during that era. This was primarily generated by people who used psychedelic ...
, and dub.
''Pitchfork
A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves.
The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...
''s Mark Richardson stated that the album is "striking in its immediacy and comes across as friendly and welcoming". The A.V. Club
''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...
's Andy Battaglia called the album a "summation and an expansion of everything Animal Collective has done so far, with a sharper focus on melody and more emboldened vocals that drive the songs." Dave Simpson of ''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' gave the album four out of five stars, declaring the album sound as "their most ' pop'" and the album itself as "a joyful, transcendent record somehow reminiscent of kids let loose in a musical sandpit." ''Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...
''s Leah Greenblatt awarded the album an A− stating that although it "won't land the band the opening slot on a Coldplay
Coldplay are a British rock band formed in London in 1997. They consist of vocalist and pianist Chris Martin, guitarist Jonny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman, drummer Will Champion and creative director Phil Harvey. They met at University Col ...
tour", the album "cleaves closer to ''Person Pitch
''Person Pitch'' is the third solo album by American recording artist Noah Lennox under his alias Panda Bear, released on March 20, 2007, by Paw Tracks. Departing stylistically from his prior work as both a member of Animal Collective and a solo a ...
'' more listener-friendly aesthetic". Margaret Wappler of ''The LA Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'' stated that the album "shines a light" into the group's "subterranean world of labyrinthine freakadelia, ..dispens ngwith most of their creepy vocal tics" in favor of "breezy harmonies."
In their 2009 end of year coverage, UK music magazine '' Clash'' named 'Merriweather Post Pavilion' its Album of the Year, publishing an in-depth look at the album and interview with the band's Noah Lennox (a.k.a. Panda Bear). ''Pitchfork'' ranked ''Merriweather Post Pavilion'' 14 on their Top 200 Albums of the 2000s list and also the Album of the Year for 2009. Spin Magazine
''Spin'' (stylized in all caps) is an American music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione, Jr. Now owned by Next Management Partners, the magazine is an online publication since it stopped issuing a print edition in 2012.
Histor ...
ranked it the best album of the year, as did Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...
and KEXP
KEXP-FM (90.3 MHz) is a non-commercial radio station licensed to Seattle, Washington, United States, specializing in alternative and indie rock programmed by its disc jockeys for the Seattle metropolitan area. The station is owned by the non-p ...
. Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
placed it at 14 on their list and it ranked 30th in ''The Wire
''The Wire'' is an American Crime film, crime drama Television show, television series created and primarily written by author and former police reporter David Simon. The series was broadcast by the cable network HBO in the United States. ''The ...
''s annual critics' poll. Readers across Canada voted the album the No. 2 experimental and No. 7 electro album of 2009 in Exclaim!
''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features in-depth coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly Exclaim! print magazine publishes 7 ...
magazine. In 2010 and 2013, the album was included in the book ''1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die
''1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die'' is a musical reference book first published in 2005 by Universe Publishing. Part of the ''1001 Before You Die'' series, it compiles writings and information on albums chosen by a panel of music critics ...
''.
Track listing
Sample credits
* "Lion in a Coma" features jaw harp samples from "Yitileni" by Madosini
Latozi "Madosini" Mpahleni (25 December 1943 – 23 December 2022) was a South African musician, known for playing Xhosa traditional instruments such as the '' uhadi'' and ''mhrubhe'' musical bows, and the '' isitolotolo''.
Madosini performed u ...
.
Personnel
* Avey Tare
David Michael Portner (born April 24, 1979), also known by his moniker Avey Tare, is a musician and songwriter who co-founded the American experimental pop band Animal Collective. He has released three solo albums, as well as three collaborative ...
– vocals, electronics, samples, keys, guitar, percussion
* Panda Bear
The giant panda (''Ailuropoda melanoleuca''), also known as the panda bear (or simply the panda), is a bear species endemic to China. It is characterised by its bold black-and-white coat and rotund body. The name "giant panda" is sometimes use ...
– vocals, samples, electronics, percussion
* Geologist
A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, althou ...
– electronics, samples
* Ben Allen – engineering
Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...
, mixing
* Aaron Ersoy – assistant
Chart positions
Ballet Slippers
To celebrate ''Merriweather's'' 10th anniversary, Animal Collective released ''Ballet Slippers'', a live album consisting of performances from its supporting tour. The live album is notable for being mixed to "reflect a full concert experience", including song transitions and interludes, despite the performances being pulled from different concerts. Although released in support of ''Merriweather'', some songs are from earlier records (e.g. "Lablakely Dress/Fireworks" being a medley of songs from ''Danse Manatee
''Danse Manatee'' is the first collaborative studio album between Avey Tare, Panda Bear, and Geologist, released in July 2001 on the label Catsup Plate. It was later retroactively classified as the second studio album by their band Animal Colle ...
'' and ''Strawberry Jam'', respectively).
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
2009 albums
Animal Collective albums
Domino Recording Company albums
Avant-pop albums