I am not even going to pretend to be objective about my feelings toward Animal Collective and member Panda Bear’s solo output. I have not been interested in either for some time. Yes, I know that Animal Collective are oft considered the best band of a generation, and that Panda Bear’s “Person Pitch” helped redefine indie rock over the past five years and that many think it’s one of the top three albums of the aughts. I am just not one of those people. I liked Animal Collective enough when they first emerged as Avey Tare and Panda Bear with the incredibly forward-thinking “Spirit They’ve Gone, Spirit They’ve Vanished.” I almost became a true believer around the time “Feels” dropped, and after seeing them perform live I was open to the possibility that they really were the best band on earth. I even enjoyed the majority of “Strawberry Jam.” But then came the much heralded “Merriweather Post Pavilion,” which left me wondering 'what the fuck?'. I personally detested that record. Aside for a few tracks, I thought it was a half-baked, meandering mess. The words I used to describe it were "a bad jam band playing music for a rave." I felt pretty much the same about “Person Pitch,” an album that has done nothing but bore me to tears every time I attempt to give it a second, third, fourth chance. I realize this puts me on the wrong side of indie-rock history and I realize that both albums are important as historical documents, having influenced more than a few musicians and records, nevertheless my opinion has not budged and I will take it with me to the grave.So imagine my surprise when I sampled the “Tomboy” single last year and kind of lost my mind over it in a good way. That single was the first in a series of 7”s that would eventually come to comprise a good portion of the “Tomboy” LP. To my own astonishment I found myself seeking out and snatching up every single that Panda Bear released in the lead up to the release of "Tomboy," often paying top price to get my hands on what were essentially limited-edition previews. If someone had told me at the end of 2009 that I would be stalking Panda Bear with such voracity, I would have laughed in their face. And if someone had told me that I would call “Tomboy” a shoe-in for Album Of The Year in 2011, I would have told them they were fucking crazy. I would have also have been completely and utterly wrong, because from where I am standing “Tomboy” is a game-changing classic.
Although “You Can Count On Me” opens the record with the kind of hallucinatory expansiveness that characterized “Person Pitch,” the sound quickly becomes colder and more insular on the title track that follows. “Tomboy,” the song, has more in common with Radiohead’s “King of Limbs” than it does “Person Pitch,” it’s also better than anything on either of those records. It’s a dense number featuring claustrophobic guitar and synth effects built on the kind of steady pulsating tribal beat that Animal Collective used to be known for. There is an urgency to “Tomboy” that is entirely foreign to Panda Bear’s solo output heretofore. Things grow even bleaker and better on “Slow Motion.” Originally appearing as the b-side on the “Tomboy” 7”, last year this song rooted itself inside my brain, repeatedly playing as part of my internal soundtrack. To this day it continues to mesmerize me. There is a M.C. Escher quality to the track which is built on ascending and descending reverbed effects that slowly, but surely, hypnotizes. Panda Bear's vocals float dreamily over the music giving the track an otherworldly quality, even as it threatens to pull you down toward darkness. Yet, just as Panda Bear threatens to jump into the abyss, he changes things up with the sparkling anthematic “Surfer’s Hymn.” The track recalls the music of Steve Reich and Philip Glass if either composer took copious amounts of amphetamines and sequenced a synthesizer piece. It’s hyper, shiny and immediate, and one of the best songs I've hear this year.
While there is certainly an increased heart rate that beats throughout “Tomboy,” Panda Bear does take time out for the languid “Last Night At The Jetty” and minimalist numbers like “Drone” and “Sheherazade,” both of which are deeply indebted to 20th century experimentalism. Each track is a nice departure, but ultimately it’s songs like the chilly pulsating “Alsatian Darn” and downright frantic “Afterburner” that makes the record so spectacular.
Apparently not everyone agrees. Some long-time fans have been put off by the shift in focus here, and by that I mean there exists an actual focus here. I personally think that Panda Bear, and Animal Collective, operate best when there is more, and not less, structure to their songs. I am a huge fan of formless experimental music, but Panda Bear and Animal Collective's failure in this realm is proof that it takes a special kind of talent to successfully produce such music. With "Tomboy" there is a structure and tightness that has been missing from previous Panda Bear efforts that resembles pop music, even though this is hardly a pop record. Unlike “Person Pitch,” this probably won’t be soundtracking anybody’s summer parties, but that is only because it is far more substantive and cerebral. I would even go so far as to say it is the most successful experimental indie-rock recording since Radiohead’s “Kid A,” an album that also challenged expectations when it was released, but is now recognized for the masterpiece that it is.
So yes, I’m calling Panda Bear’s “Tomboy” a shoe-in for Album of the Year (although I’ll concede that Bon Iver is lurking out there still). Fans looking for "Person Pitch 2" be damned. For once Panda Bear sounds like he is living up to his potential, and not just painting impressionistic sound worlds for cool kids wanting to chill on a vibe. This record has even renewed my interest in Animal Collective, hopefully they will follow suit and create something as innovative, engaging and rewarding as "Tomboy."
"Slow Motion"
"Surfer's Hymn"
"Alsatian Darn"
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