Culture

Rating: 5/5

Experimental pop group Animal Collective requires no introduction. Between their critical acclaim, alluring sense of mystery and smattering of successful singles, they are certainly a band whose reputation precedes them.

In the absence of a conventional frontman, it was never quite clear who the main creative force in Animal Collective was. True to their name, each album of theirs felt like a team effort, a piece of sound-art born of collaboration. That is, until Noah “Panda Bear” Lennox released his third solo LP, 2007’s Person Pitch. An album of vibrant textures and dizzying depth, Person Pitch is a kaleidoscopic pop masterpiece as good as any Animal Collective album. Suddenly, it seemed obvious where the real talent in the collective lies.

If Person Pitch had any flaws at all, it was that its tracks felt more like collages than actual songs. Sure they had melody in spades, but they could feel a little intangible at times. Panda Bear responded to this in 2011 with Tomboy, the more streamlined and song-driven sequel to Person Pitch. Like his previous work, Tomboy was a pop album of enormous, echoing scope. What it lacked, however, was the sonic richness of Person Pitch. As its pallid grey-and-white artwork suggested, Tomboy was the musical equivalent of an overcast sky.

That is precisely where Panda Bear’s new album, Panda Bear vs. the Grim Reaper, comes in. Thirty seconds into the opener of this new album, “Sequential Circuits”, it is obvious that Panda Bear has in 2015 perfected his aesthetic. The fact that the robustness of Tomboy and the rainforest lushness of Person Pitch even exist under one roof is enough to make the listener jump for joy. Thankfully, the surprises don’t stop there.

From the death-referencing title alone, one could have expected Panda Bear vs. the Grim Reaper to be his darkest album yet. As Noah Lennox has gotten older and had children, the blissful naivety in his lyrics has gradually disappeared. Even Animal Collective’s most famous song, the scintillating “My Girls”, features Lennox discussing responsibility and mortality. True enough, this new album does have dark undercurrents. Queasy interludes like “Davy Jones’ Locker” evoke the onset of a panic attack. The album’s melodies have an uncanny quality to them. The lyrics include references to insanity (“Come to Your Senses”), injured dogs (“Mr Noah”) and Lennox’s father dying of cancer (“Tropic of Cancer”).

However, there is also plenty of glee to be found here. The watery hymn “Sequential Circuits” slowly fades into “Mr Noah”, the barnstorming lead single from the album.
It is one of the funkiest songs Panda Bear has ever made, with a driving beat and addictive vocals. The melody does feel tense and precarious, like that of the Beatles’ “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)”, but “gloomy” is not the word to describe it. Rather than being overtly dark or optimistic, Panda Bear vs. the Grim Reaper is an album that operates on a tension between the two. Panda Bear’s echoing, angelic vocals are frequently set against gurgling drones. The delightful melody of “Boys Latin” flits anxiously between two vocal tracks. The Tchaikovsky-sampling “Tropic of Cancer” somehow manages to be both the most sombre and the most sugary track here. Fans of the dichotomous approach Animal Collective takes to music will not be disappointed.

Panda Bear vs. the Grim Reaper is an album of many sounds and ideas, all competing for your attention. You can appreciate it instantly on the grounds that it is a well-produced, melodic pop album. You can also push past the surface-level sheen and dissect the many other layers it offers, such as its cryptic lyrics and myriad sonic nuances. Every Animal Collective-related release so far has rewarded concentration and repeated listens. After giving Panda Bear vs. the Grim Reaper a handful of spins, I feel I’m only just skimming the surface.