Panda Bear - Tomboy
Posted on 5/16/2011
Panda Bear
Tomboy
[Paw Tracks ]
Tomboy
[Paw Tracks ]
Baltimore-based group Animal Collective has always been about forward trajectory. That philosophy has carried over to Panda Bear’s solo career, which has jumped from college-freshman bedroom noodlings to reflective acoustic folk to the full-on transcendental bliss of “Person Pitch” in under a decade. “Tomboy” continues the change in style, bringing in Sonic Boom from Spacemen 3 to craft an album of what might be fittingly called spiritual sample-pop. Borrowing from the likes of every genre imaginable, it’s every bit as trippy and sun roasted as “Person Pitch,” and actually improves on it in many ways.
The biggest addition to the sonic palette is undoubtedly the electric guitar, which hasn’t featured prominently on any of Panda’s other albums or really on any Animal Collective album since “Feels.” (Their last two did include it sparingly.) The rhythmic qualities of the instrument contrast typically well with Panda’s singing, which on songs like opener “You Can Count on Me” is more monk-like than ever before. When it works, I’m blown away. When it doesn’t, more notably toward the end of the album, it leaves me cold. That’s the kind of album “Tomboy” is; it takes a distinct sound and pushes it to its limit, for better (“Count on Me,” “Slow Motion”) or for worse (“Scheherazade,” “Benfica”).
Where past solo efforts have sounded like the work of a growing, dare we say maturing songwriter, here Panda has never sounded more assured. He’s also a lyrical philosopher, sharing his views on things like fatherhood, relationships and inner conflict. Early single “Slow Motion” is still my favorite, with Panda strumming along to a boom bap beat while singing one of the album’s many mantra-like choruses: “What counts / Is counting.” On “Alsatian Darn,” his most emotional song to date, he lays out a haunting self-manifesto: “Say, can’t I make a bad mistake / I’ll say what it is I want to say to you.” Hey, we all have things in our lives we need to work on. If we were as beautifully honest about them as Panda is in his music, the world might be a prettier sounding place indeed.
The biggest addition to the sonic palette is undoubtedly the electric guitar, which hasn’t featured prominently on any of Panda’s other albums or really on any Animal Collective album since “Feels.” (Their last two did include it sparingly.) The rhythmic qualities of the instrument contrast typically well with Panda’s singing, which on songs like opener “You Can Count on Me” is more monk-like than ever before. When it works, I’m blown away. When it doesn’t, more notably toward the end of the album, it leaves me cold. That’s the kind of album “Tomboy” is; it takes a distinct sound and pushes it to its limit, for better (“Count on Me,” “Slow Motion”) or for worse (“Scheherazade,” “Benfica”).
Where past solo efforts have sounded like the work of a growing, dare we say maturing songwriter, here Panda has never sounded more assured. He’s also a lyrical philosopher, sharing his views on things like fatherhood, relationships and inner conflict. Early single “Slow Motion” is still my favorite, with Panda strumming along to a boom bap beat while singing one of the album’s many mantra-like choruses: “What counts / Is counting.” On “Alsatian Darn,” his most emotional song to date, he lays out a haunting self-manifesto: “Say, can’t I make a bad mistake / I’ll say what it is I want to say to you.” Hey, we all have things in our lives we need to work on. If we were as beautifully honest about them as Panda is in his music, the world might be a prettier sounding place indeed.
Stream: Panda Bear - "You Can Count On Me"