Panda Bear – Panda Bear Meets The Grim Reaper (2015)
As one of my most expected albums of 2015 and one of the earliest releases of the year, Panda Bear aka Noah Lennox, hits the target and meets the expectations. While his main project, Animal Collective has found a pinnacle with Strawberry Jam and Merriweather Post Pavillion the Baltimore based indie/electro sensation has been on a decent path while Panda Bear alone seems to be expanding his creative ways.
Now singing about family, since he is a father of two, he speaks more about the fear of death and the responsibilities that you are facing when you have to sustain a family and not just yourself. It is a new reality and like the much more competent reviewer of Pitchfork pointed it Lennox sings about home life, marriage, and seems to be making music for his domestic life.
This is a near perfect album and without a doubt the best offering by Panda Bear as a solo artist. With its very evocative title, Panda Bear Meets The Grim Reaper, I was fearing a pessimistic record slamming on darker notes and denaturing the essence of Lennox’s qualities of his Beach Boys like voice and his dream like sampling music. I couldn’t be more wrong. Far from repeating himself, Panda Bear kept away from common spheres while exploring themes and sonorities he masters. Some naysayers will state that a consensus around an artist or an album is like an empty buzz but for Panda Bear and his new release praises and accolades are well deserved.
9.0
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