LP of the year? Surely you jest. Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavillion is altogether familiar terrain, thank you very much, and one doesn’t exactly need a passport to get there.

History repeats herself as odiously as a furniture salesman. This time last year the pre-release buzz for Vampire Weekend’s self-titled debut was unbearable. It hardly improved matters that the LP was substandard. Not only did it not live up to the hype, it did not even rank, at least not in the primary meaning of the word. A far better LP, released within days of Vampire Weekend, was The Evening Descends, although I simply will not write another word about it. I value my employ at this blog too much to put it in jeopardy. Suffice to say that January is not too early to call the Album of the Year, but the review-niverse always calls the wrong album.

Fast forward to January 2009. A band of upstarts has released a competent long play. To be sure it delivers moments of sheer bliss. It is electronic psychedelia: half Matrix, half Zion. But The Polyphonic Spree have been here before, as has your favorite DJ. Tobias was just in citing Brian Wilson as a significant influence. And if I hear “My Girls” again I might shriek like one of. So instead of checking out Merriweather Post Pavillion today, you might try John Frusciante’s The Empyrean tomorrow. Tobias has already provided a glimpse.

And yes, it’s too early in the year to call either the Best LP of 2009.