“Nowhere to go while our bodies glow.”
Celebrating the tenth anniversary of Merriweather Post Pavilion, Animal Collective released Ballet Slippers, a live album culled from four shows during the tour for their landmark 2009 album. The live LP features all but three of the songs from Merriweather, with its other selections culled from their wild and undefinable output of the decade preceding it.
Always fascinated by on-stage noodling, it is fun to hear the band mess around in between songs and work their way toward their recognizable, reverb-drenched riffs. Opener ‘In the Flowers’—which also kicks off Merriweather—is in the ideal spot, its pulsating intro ushering in the celebratory setlist with palpable anticipation.
Although there are plenty of highlights as the band plucks favorites from their most beloved string of albums, few of them compete with the studio versions of the songs. The recording and mixing are all well done, but it’s still a live album, without the cohesion of being from a single show. One selection that is altogether different, though, is the twenty minute combo jam of ‘Lablakely Dress’ and ‘Fireworks’. It’s mostly dominated by the latter before evolving into an extended jam, and—get this—Deakin actually rips a guitar solo. It’s disjointed and repetitive, but it’s there.
The performance is most enjoyable if you already have a strong grasp of the studio versions of the tracks; else you might find yourself lost amidst the band’s swirling improvisations that can only be truly appreciated with an understanding of what they’re deviating from. Like most live albums, Ballet Slippers won’t sway the opinion of a detractor. It’s nice for die-hards or those who want to relive the Collective’s glory days of the late aughts, but it’s incredibly difficult for a band so concerned with the sonic texture of their sound to replicate those intricacies in a live setting. It’s certainly a worthy celebration of a remarkable decade, and miles better than a meaningless greatest hits collection that many modern bands would have been content with.
Favorite Tracks: Who Could Win A Rabbit; Lablakely Dress/Fireworks.