But why has this taken so long? Strawberry Jam was a culmination of their demented folk beginnings, their fascination with loop pedals and more musical equipment than most of the top 40, but still didn't quite deliver as much as you knew it could.
Merriweather Post Pavillion has definitely had the edges sanded down compared to its predecessor, and perhaps the band have been reined in slightly, but not enough so that you can't hear the band past the heavy handed A & R man, but just as a case in point, this is their first album to have no songs over the six minute mark, yet it still their longest album since their debut.
However, for the first three songs at the very least, it seems as if the album is one long composition on its own, a la Campfire Songs, an early album by the band recorded in one take back to back on a screen porch in Maryland.
If anything, MPP is the logical follow on, with more sophisticated beats and pads, lyrics that are intelligible and songs that aren't so long that you chew your own ears off*. But it leaves you constantly looking for where you've been shortchanged elsewhere. "Bluish", although not really a standout from the album, has all the correct ingredients, driving percussion, digital filters and a childish sense of wonder.
Even the cover, which unfortunately, is not as psychotic in reality as it is above, perfectly sums what you're going to be hearing. Amazingly infuriating, and infuriatingly amazing.
If anything, its a grower simply because you can't appreciate it in just one listen. Three or four listens in and I'm still not positive on which track I like best. Its a competition between "Summertime Clothes", "Also Frightened" and the awesome "Lion In A Coma".
Certainly a great start for 2009.
9/10
*(incidentally, for the final track on the Liars' album They Threw Us All In A Trench And Built A Monument On Top, "This Dust Makes That Mud", I did chew my own ears off. 30 minutes of looped noise was totally not worth it.)
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