05. Animal Collective – My Girls

Click on the turntable on the left to listen to a continuous stream of music featured on Pretty Much Amazing - updated every day. For more, you can check out the Best Songs of 2011, or our Best Albums of 2011.

Artwork by Adam Sarpalius

As 2009, and the decade come to a close, PMA will be looking back at our favorite songs of the last ten years. We will update a list with 75 empty slots until we reach that song that changed everything. You can keep track of this list by keeping an eye on this page. We make these lists in hopes that you guys will chime in the comments and share your favorite musical moments of the noughties.

For the majority of this decade, Animal Collective have been breaking down barriers and reinventing their musical identity, inspiring and cultivating a legion of fans. These nearly-obsessive fans broke out in hysteria when word that Merriweather Post Pavilion finally leaked. “My Girls” was my first taste of Merriweather Post Pavilion, and what a taste it was. It had the usual bleeps and blips, but also melodies to sing along with, beats to bop your head to, simple lyrics with deeper meaning. The message is transcendent and timeless, the music is entirely modern and original.

Pitchfork, in its recent essay on the “Decade In Indie,” comments on indie music’s occasional lack of danceablility, the constant criticism at the beginning of the decade that hipster rock cannot be danced to. That mindset has certainly gone away in recent years, and with many MPP songs but most importantly “My Girls,” Animal Collective created a track that could be played to dance-happy teens as easily as it could be played to awkwardly standing-still 40-somethings. A song that could be blasted from car speakers on a hot summer day or listened to softly on headphones on a rainy one. A song that could be felt, shared, experienced. “My Girls” is a musical masterpiece, an underwater voyage (true to the album’s concept and the music video) : it’s the perfect gateway into Animal Collective’s expansive musical collection.

• 06. Arcade Fire – Wake Up
• 07. TV on the Radio – Wolf Like Me
• 08. Outkast – Hey Ya!
• 09. Gnarls Barkley – Crazy
• 10. M.I.A. – Paper Planes
• 11. Daft Punk – One More Time
• 12. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Maps
• 13. Spoon – The Way We Get By
• 14. The Killers – All These Things That I’ve Done
• 15. Panda Bear – Comfy In Nautica
• 16. Arctic Monkeys – Leave Before The Light Comes On
• 17. Kanye West – Jesus Walks
• 18. Beyonce – Crazy In Love
• 19. LCD Soundsystem – Losing My Edge
• 20. Radiohead – Jigsaw Falling Into Place
• 21. The Strokes – The Modern Age
• 22. Jay-Z & The Beatles – 99 Problems (Danger Mouse)
• 23. Fleet Foxes – White Winter Hymnal
• 24. The Knife – Heartbeats
• 25. Lil Wayne – A Milli
• 26-75: Various

by Adam Offitzer on December 23, 2009 ‡ 0 reactions