Into the Bamboo

Having fallen behind (somewhat) in reviewing, I finally have had a chance to carefully evaluate another album. Yes, I am slow at doing this. Sometimes I need several listens in order to get an overall feeling on an album, especially the ones I like. Such is the case with Panda Bear’s Person Pitch, which is easily one of my favorites so far. I needed to listen to this several times to digest what is going on in the record. I’m like that with most of the records I’m going to review. I like to learn about the band and where they were at the time of the album.

# 74 – Panda Bear, Person Pitch (Metascore = 87)

I love this record. Plain and simple. Panda Bear consists of Noah Lennox, who is a founding member of the band Animal Collective (another favorite). He’s released three records under the Panda Bear moniker; Person Pitch is his most recent (though he has another coming out sometime this year). Which came first—Animal Collective or Panda Bear? Either way, the influences run throughout this record.

I am a bit perplexed by the score (87) compared to that of Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavilion (89). Maybe the logic is that Merriweather is more polished than Person Pitch. That probably is the case, but Person Pitch to me is a masterpiece. Lennox’ mixture of ambient sounds with old rock ‘n roll songs and other elements create a lush backdrop for the album. Once I was entrenched into the album, I was sold.

There are seven tracks on the album at various lengths. There are two tracks that are over 12 minutes long, but you really don’t notice. Realistically, I would suggest listening to the album as a whole rather than in parts, because you really get more from that than any other way. However, if you are so inclined to listen to individual songs, definitely go for “Comfy in Nautica” and “I’m Not”. These are two of the best songs.

Speaking of favorite songs, I really don’t dislike any of them. From “Comfy in Nautica” through to “Ponytail”, I really liked all of the sounds and words. There really aren’t any weak spots, which is why I am perplexed when I compare it to Merriweather. I didn’t feel that Merriweather was as cohesive as this set. I haven’t reevaluated that record, but when I do, we’ll see whether I revise my feelings after having listened to this.

I highly recommend checking out Person Pitch. It's a great album that is just easy to listen to.