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Review

Rated

by Ruben_James on 03/18/2007

Considering Ragtime as its legacy, pop music is roughly a century old. In these last 100 years it seems everything that can be done, has been done. There are peaks and valleys in the artistic merit of the form, but it is essentially the same when you boil the raw elements down to their essence. Now, in 2007, it’s nearly impossible for an artist to come along and redefine the basic idea of what makes a pop song. But, that’s exactly what Noah “Panda Bear” Lennox has done on Person Pitch. This is such a revolutionary work of songwriting that it’s hard to understand the process by which these songs were birthed.

Whether you consider musical comparisons weak writing or not, it is the best shorthand to convey an art form that has to be heard to be understood. For example: You are most likely familiar with artist A. Artist B makes music that is influenced by artist A. Now you have some idea of whether or not you might like artist B. All the figurative language in Merriam-Webster can’t achieve that succinct point. The comparitist acts as such due to the nature of the music he or she is trying to inform the reader of.

That’s what is so goddamn exciting about this record. It is so new and refreshing that comparisons just don’t work the way they do with Panda Bear’s contemporaries. This is a new kind of pop music built out of hundreds of tiny pieces of previous efforts by other artists—manipulated to the point of being unrecognizable. Yes, hip-hop has been doing this since CHIC’s “Good Times” laid the foundation for the Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” in 1979. However, Lennox’s unique approach to this technique is revolutionary to the kind of music being made in the “indie” world. Samples ranging from African chants to Cat Stevens to his own musicianship are looped to form a warm bed for Lennox’s imaginative vocal melodies—and I guess I’ll get in my one comparison here—that sound vaguely Brian Wilson-esque.

The first time I noticed Lennox’s gift for loop-based music was on Animal Collective’s wonderful Sung Tongs—but in the case of that record the band was looping their own playing. On Person Pitch, Lennox tirelessly assembles something entirely new out of the old. On the truly inspirational opening track, “Comfy in Nautica,” ^MP3 a short chant is looped for nearly four minutes as Lennox sings a simple chromatic melody praising the virtue of being one’s self: “Coolness is having courage / Courage to do what’s right / Try to remember always just to have a good time.” Lennox then juxtaposes the positive vibes with a foreboding synth that swallows the previous 3:30 and abruptly ends the song.

Following “Take Pills”—a song about his experience with antidepressants—Lennox expresses love for his “Bros” ^VIDEO that sometimes interferes with his need to have his alone time. The epic track clocks in at 12:30 and never seems too long as samples fade in and out of Lennox’s own aggressive acoustic guitar strums—one of the few moments of non-sampled music. The second half of the album is highlighted by the coupled tracks “Good Girl” and “Carrots”—two tracks that contain enough good music for four or five.

I’m pretty stingy when it comes to giving out gold stars. But when you hear something that lets you believe there is still room left for new ideas in music, it’s truly energizing. Panda Bear has made an ol’ skeptic into a true believer with Person Pitch and for that I award the coveted 5-star. From now on, I’ll try to remember always just to have a good time.

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