History always lies to you. Whenever something that seemed like it was the best of times comes back as a memory, even with the pictures, places and people brought back into view, the truth is rarely there.
2009 feels now like it was a different century, let alone decade, an era punctuated sporadically by brilliant records but which in retrospect often lacked inspiration if not effort. Was Merriweather Post Pavilion deemed brilliant due to this perceived lower bar? Did it benefit from being up against Dirty Projectors, The xx or Grizzly Bear?
Fifteen years on, the answer is a resounding no. Yes it’s still a strange proposition, like the Beach Boys playing esoteric techno, but whilst it was nowhere near as mainstream as we’ve all subsequently managed to convince ourselves, its experimentation had assurance and purpose. Swooping from drone to dream pop to pulsing electronica, the unquestionable peak remains the dizzying My Girls – a song of the century so far contender – but pleasures both real and imagined are scattered almost everywhere.
The past is a traitor, but Merriweather Post Pavilion’s 15th anniversary edition is here to remind us that just sometimes, our ears did not deceive us.
You can read a full review here.
The Voice Of Unreason 