Ballet Slippers is live album by Animal Collective, released in celebration of the 10th anniversary of their endlessly influential studio album Merriweather Post Pavilion. Compiled with care from several performances from the album’s original 2009 North American tour, it is sequenced to reflect a typical setlist of the era and includes transitions and interludes. Merriweather was a coalescing of all of AnCo’s sonic experimentation to this point, refined to a laser-blast of hypnagogic pop anchored by eclectic electronics and layers of textured vocals. Ballet Slippers includes live versions of nine of the eleven tracks from Merriweather, most of them radically revised and extended from the originals, including "My Girls", "Lion In A Coma", and "Summertime Clothes".  Also includes radically unique takes on “Banshee Beat” (from Feels) and “Who Can Win a Rabbit” (Sung Tongs), which made frequent appearances on this tour. Animal Collective were notorious for playing out how they wanted to, not necessarily how their fans wanted them to, and this is the most comprehensive overview of their live aesthetic released commercially thus far. Recommended. 

• black triple vinyl pressing
• packaged in deluxe book style gatefold sleeve
• artwork layout by frequent collaborator Rob Carmichael 
• digital download included
• limited edition
  
• music label: Domino 2019

reviewed by ONLY A LAD 06/2019