Two anniversaries: Yeah Yeah Yeahs, "It's Blitz", Animal Collective, "Merriweather Post Pavilion"

This post was inspired by "It's Blitz", which was released ten years (!!) ago this week.  I hadn't listened to the full album in years, but guess what?  If this album was released tomorrow it would still blow minds.  Which rock band working today (indie or not) could combine the pure elation of disco with dramatic string-led balladry while still maintaining their garage rock edge?  Arcade Fire tried a similar thing with "Reflector" and failed miserably.  Nobody could pull it off except Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and as the week came to a close I was wondering how there could possibly be 22 albums better than "It's Blitz" released in the decade of the 00's.

Tenth anniversary pieces for "Merriweather Post Pavilion", released in the first week of January 2009, took on a different tone entirely.  Whereas "It's Blitz" sound better than ever these days, even talking about "Merriweather" feels like reminiscing about ancient history.  It might as well have been released twenty or even thirty years ago.  It sounds so much like a dead concept from an entirely different era.  At the time, I'd been overdosing for over a year on Animal Collective recordings that were based almost entirely on the new songs.  When "Merriweather" finally came out, I hardly needed it anymore, the album already existed for me in a live format, and the recorded version could do nothing but disappoint.  It was not too different from my reaction to GYBE's "Yanqui U.X.O." in 2002.  Animal Collective were a niche indie band whose hype made them and consumed them in quick order.  I live that they've continued to do their own thing and never tried settling into the rut of copying their most famous album over and over.  But I rarely feel like listening to "Merriweather" these days, and in fact, I rarely listened to it in 2009 too. 

Nonetheless, it's a bit sad that many critics chose to remember "Merriweather Post Pavilion" via "hey remember when we all liked this?  LOL" pseudo nostalgia.  But it's more than balanced by the pure joy that comes out of remembering how great "It's Blitz" was and still goddamned is.