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Album Details
- Artist: Panda Bear
- Album: Person Pitch
- Label: Paw Tracks
- Year of Release: 2007
- ME Rating:
- Reviewed by: kev_stev on 2008-01-16
RecommendIf you haven't heard about this one yet, you haven't been doing your homework. Panda Bear's Person Pitch is one of the more ubiquitous, unanimously acclaimed indie albums of the 21st century, garnering attention from your favorite blog, Pitchfork, and now Music Emissions. Member of the highly experimental (and, at times, just plain weird) Animal Collective, Panda Bear (or Noah Lennox) indeed created a masterpiece with his solo project--an album that proves inexhaustible and limitless in interpretations, well deserving of all its praise.
So what's so great about this album anyway? For one, it's unconventional; its multitude of samples, layered one over the other, range from bubbles to fast-paced jungle-like sounds (see "Good Girl/Carrots"), exploring atmosphere and emotions through precise timing and repetition of sounds. Combined with seamless track-listing, the loops give the album a strong emotional volatility: the bubbling (literally) end of "Take Pills," for instance, is a climatic moment of euphoria, which is contrasted to the starkly elegiac "I'm Not," slowly played after the explosive fireworks culminating Panda's 12 minute opus, "Bros."
Then there is Noah Lennox's voice. Most often compared to the vocals of Brian Wilson, Lennox's voice would surely make Wilson Smile as they beautifully echo in songs like "Comfy in Nautica," where a sample of Noah's chants are looped under his vocals. Surprisingly, this repetition never comes off as indulgent; Noah's vocals allow for an expansion of his range from song to song, giving each track an identity of its own (which is rare in such a cohesive album).
So is it worth all the hype? Undoubtedly. There is something new in Pitch every time it is played; whether it's a nearly inaudible noise, a deeper understanding of the music, or a newfound connection to Panda's incarnations, something will hit you upon each listen. Don't sleep on this one; no one else did, anyway.
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on 2011-10-17 CharlesMartel Said:
Animal Collective percussionist, Noah Lennox's third solo album under the name of Panda Bear is pretty much what I expected it to be. Given that Animal Collective tend to leave me cold and confused, it would hardly come as a surprise that Panda Bear have never offered anything which, in my mind, would make them worthy of repeat listens.
I just don't know where to begin. I know it sounds terribly negative, but this is just awful. Fake lo-fi production of what is essentially some off-key singing over a continuous loop of something smothered in delay and reverb to varying degrees. I know its a cliche, and I know I couldn't, but even I could do better than this. Listen to one verse, and you have basically heard the whole album.
Now I know I can come across as (deliberately) contrary at times when it comes to highly rated music, but I would be really grateful if someone could enlighten me as to what is actually good about this. Take a psychedelic era Beach Boys album recorded outside the monkey house at the local zoo at night, and then mix underwater while bombed out of your brain on some chemical or other. You might then get a clearer idea of where this is coming from. I don't want to criticise anyone who genuinely likes this, if there is such a person, but this sounds to me like the sort of stuff the scenesters sit around listening to down at the local pub and try to outdo each other in praise lest they be thought not to like it. The thing is, all of them really loathe it but their desire for acceptance and street credibility will not allow them to admit it.
Maybe I am too long in the tooth, but I neither understand nor frankly want to. If anything, this album proves to me that no matter how open minded I like to feel I am when it comes to music, there is always going to be something which to me is unforgiveably boring and inane. And this sort of thing is precisely what I have long dreaded, something in which I can see absolutely no merit.
In truth, if I had known Panda Bear was an offshoot of Animal Collective I wouldn't have bothered and would have saved myself 45 minutes and 36 seconds in which time I could have done something more productive and pleasurable - like trying to de-worm my cat or watching paint dry.
Rating: 1/10
