Album Review: Panda Bear – “Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper”

By: Maria Sokulsky-Dolnycky (@marisodo) – 

Noah Lennox, a.k.a. Panda Bear of Animal Collective, is back with his fifth solo effort, Panda Bear Meets The Grim Reaper (PBMTGR), and he once again teamed up with producer Sonic Boom, aka Pete Kember, following 2011’s Tomboy. Lennox returns with a dark, glitchy, gurgling new album after a fairly lengthy break, during which Animal Collective released Centipede Hz in 2012 and Lennox collaborated with Daft Punk on the 2013 track “Doin’ It Right” from Random Access Memories. The synth-centric record is simultaneously a logical succession to Tomboy, and a stark departure from his previous works; Lennox is building on his previous releases while exploring new, uncharted territory. PBMTGR touches on themes of death initially laid on 2004’s Young Prayer, featuring manipulated and intricately woven samples recalling 2007’s Person Pitch, and boasting shimmery, crystalline harmonies à la Tomboy. Lennox’s velvety-smooth voice floats in and around crunchy breakbeats that would feel at home on any hip-hop record as a sonic brew churns and swirls in a witch’s cauldron.

Recorded across North America and most notably in Lisbon, Portugal, Lennox got a healthy dose of Vitamin D; PBMTGB boasts some of Lennox’s most buoyant, accessible melodies to date. That being said, gritty instrumentation and not-so-sunny lyrics avoid an overdose of saccharine. The binary melody in “Boys Latin” dances across left & right channels in a delightfully dizzying, rhythmic and hypnotic dance. The stuttering “Principe Real” oozes with sunny tropicalia – conjuring images of shimmery heat waves radiating off sun-soaked sidewalks with trees swaying in a warm breeze and feeling very much like a dance track, it would not be surprising to hear this song played within the bars and clubs of Lisbon’s district of the same name. Lennox also gorgeously samples the classics; the lilting harp loop of the “Pas de Deux” from Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker” suite is heard in the devastatingly beautiful “Tropic of Cancer”, and Debussy’s “Arabesque No. 1” colours the chilly, contemplative “Lonely Wanderer.” The album tapers off on a glittery high-note with the ecstatic hymn-like “Acid Wash”. Panda Bear has indeed met the grim reaper, looked him in the eyes, and survived to tell the tale.

Essential Tracks: “Boys Latin”, “Tropic of Cancer”, “Mr. Noah”