One of the best albums of the 2000s thus far - After thoroughly listening through Person Pitch, Noah Lennox s third solo album, several times, three things ultimately struck me most.The first was how quickly this album seemed to pass by. On the first listen, I passively lent it my ears while doing other busy work. I knew I liked what I heard, but it seemed to have ended after fifteen minutes. After looking through the tracklist, I realized that over forty five minutes had passed in actuality. And on many listens since then, I have also felt similarly, even though I have been paying very close attention to the music, that it seems like it must go by in under a half hour.I can attribute this strange phenomenon to a number of factors, the first of which is Panda Bear s wide use of sampling and repetition throughout the album. When I saw Animal Collective live at Pitchfork, I found it quite interesting that the show was really just shy of a laptop show, all three members of the band were at one point in front of a soundboard, the Geologist actually for the entire show. Avey Tare was actually quite versatile, sometimes on a guitar or drums. Panda Bear spent most of the show in front of his soundboard, but picked up on percussion a couple times.What is interesting about Panda Bear s behavior as an electronic artist, and I firmly believe he can be considered some type of electronic artist now, is that he actually doesn t sample more than a little bit throughout the album. But when he does, he combines his sample choices with concocted or found sounds, and he never lets the album be completely electronic or completely organic. He builds up layers of sound much like Animal Collective did on Strawberry Jam, although somewhat less violent here, and then places them carefully over his rhythms. Many of his loops end in dissonant or floaty chords, thus making them that much more versatile and fluid. What many of them reminded me of before anything else was the album Pygmalion by Slowdive, and its accompanying demo sessions. It is only marginally likely that Panda Bear was ever actually influenced by this album, but judging by his use of these floaty vocal loops and many of the subtle melodies buried beneath the surfaces of many songs, it sure wouldn t surprise me. In any case, all of these elements come together to make a rhythmic result that begs for the listener to do two things at once, relax and listen. In this sense, time is not a concern. Panda Bear does what he needs to do, and lets the songs end on their own. Sometimes it takes twelve minutes, and sometimes four. Perhaps the juxtaposition of long songs next to shorter songs has something to do with my loss of sense of time while listening to this album.The second thing that surprised me was how accurately the album cover depicts the sound of the album. I can think of several other albums that have done such just as effectively, but none of those other album covers were quite as complex as the one for Person Pitch, making it that much more impressive.The meat of the album are the layers of sound built in each song. Sounds are built upon each other, sometimes used for one time, several bars, or the rest of the song. The samples and effects come from all different directions, parts of life. Some may sound like the sound of water in a bubble bath, while others may sound like animals, the clattering of chains, the sound that Pop Rocks make in your mouth, fireworks going off, doorbells, and whatever else Panda Bear has found or created. The effects, however, are treated with so much watery reverberation that deciphering them becomes difficult. I can liken this to the experience of seeing Animal Collective live, and not really being able to tell what was going on in the music simply because it was so thick, loud, and confusing. This may have been somewhat of a flaw live, but it sure made the music sound that much more awe inspiring, and on record it isn t a problem. However, I do find myself unable to pick out what I am hearing much of the time while listening to this album. It begs to be turned up, because you can never really hear exactly what is happening. After you turn it up, you still can t really make sense of things, but this is an album that grows in power exponentially with volume simply because for every notch on your knob you turn, you are that much more submerged in the music and what is going on.Lastly, I have been simply amazed at how happy it makes me to listen to the album.People seem to have forgotten to harmonize their voices with one another. They are getting better with it lately (See Fleet Foxes pretty swell release this year that has been lapped up by the hipster crowd this year, with very good vocal harmonies. Actually, they played on the same stage as Animal Collective at Pitchfork.), but still, people forget that vocal harmonies sell. Panda Bear isn t the freaking Mamas and Papas, but he harmonizes with himself in lovely ways that we don t hear often enough. And his smooth, playful vocals are really what make this album the pop gem it is.Lyrically, Panda Bear has the guts to sing about things that actually matter. And at that, values that his audience might actually need to hear. And the main theme of the album is so basic, so fundamental that most everyone, including myself, have glazed over it in our minds a long time ago. Be yourself. Don t let anyone else tell you what is cool, what you should listen to, or make you feel inferior. Good Girl/Carrots seems to be the most prevalent in this philosophy. After the whimsical and fun run of Good Girl, the next movement Carrots, after a heartwarming reference to Mitch Hedberg, rouses a widespread defense against the kind of people who try to tell you what to listen to, to make you cling to a scene. The kinds of people that try to make themselves feel superior by collecting all those first editions. Possibly the most affecting line is an indirect put down against those mags and websites who try to shape your style, like perhaps Pitchforkmedia.com, or better yet, this website right here. The best and most representative line, however, is sandwiched in the middle of this song, All I need to know, I knew so early. These are the kind of lyrics that we heard when we were small children on TV. Why doesn t anyone sing about these issues anymore?But what really makes this album special is that it doesn t falter even once. All of these elements come together to make a collection of seven lovely, moving songs that keep their momentum. The opening Comfy In Nautica sounds like a glorious call over a cliff to some canyon. Then, Take Pills two separate movements end up being as wonderful as one another, the first a slow relaxing piece, and then a marching, so-catchy-it-should-be-illegal second piece. And then of course comes the main song on the album, the sprawling Bros, for which my praise cannot be effectively articulated into written word. The almost tropical sounding aural cascades of I m Not act as the keystone of the album. Good Girl/Carrots comes after it, and is just as moving as Bros. In the final stretch of the album, we have possibly the two most digestible and overall lovely pieces on the album, the ambient sound collage Search For Delicious, and a tiny, quite moving lullaby type song, Ponytail, which addresses the difficulties and wonders associated with change.I think this is the one album of 2007 that I feel I can be unnecessarily enthusiastic about. It really is that good. Saying it is important or groundbreaking might be a little premature. But what seems to be the trend in pop music lately is either going toward the extremes of wildly experimental or almost ridiculously palatable. Sometimes we get people hitting pots and pans in complex polyrhythms, and sometimes we get The Jonas Brothers. Pop music has become a hedgemaze, and people seem to think that they need to base their decisions on which way to go according to how much is going to sell. Panda Bear, it seems, doesn t really care. He was just taking a walk, and he stumbled upon the beautiful garden in the center. If any album could introduce free form and experimentalism into the world of glorious catchy pop music, Person Pitch is that album.
almost spiritual....... - An album of this standing, if ever, rarely comes along. Animal Collective s Noah Lennox furthers his alter role as Panda Bear and boy are we ever glad he did. Call it experimental, far-outlandish or even psychedelic if you will. The sheer truth is that Person Pitch is genius. Intoxicating and optimistic, it s almost spiritual! Maybe Portugal had some something to do with (Noah now resides in Libson, Portugal with his wife and daughter) who knows? What we do know is that the album is full of subtle surprises that reveal themselves with every listen, typical of Animal Collective, I know. But Person Pitch is truly in a class of it s own. Simply put, this is one of the most beautiful, personal, special, good-spirited, healthy, invigorating, enchanting, exhilarating, carefully crafted albums of all time.
tight - This cd is very tight. I really like how they play off what sounds to me like audio feedback loops, which essentially creates a new kind of music. Makes me wonder how they did it with out creating chaos
perfect pitch - the whole thing (and in particular bros ) sounds like it was made by some happy 8 year olds high on acid and kool aid....its totally insanely brilliant.
apparently, i need more patience, or at least some better weed. - there are a lot of hyped up bands out there right now (2008) making this kind of record. yeasayer, caribou, animal collective, grizzly bear, just to name a few. i m trying to think of who started this current sub-genre of indie but can t place it -- probably animal collective -- this guys other group.it s not like the early 90 s where bands like pavement, sebadoh and gbv made lo-fi records because that s the only studio or 4-track they could afford. these bands are purposefully going for a certain low-fi asthetic. it s noise, for noise sake. think the beach boys filtered through enough eq s to make everything sound tiny and trebly. i m not saying it s not original, i m not even saying that sometimes it actually works, cuz it does.. sometimes. but man, over the course of an entire album? it s just so boring. and then to get 10 more bands doing the exact same thing? and can they pull it off live? i dunno, i ve never seen them in concert but i kind of doubt it.if you like tinny sounding music that meanders aimlessly (and forever) without any real hooks or discernible lyrics, then this is for you. as for me, i m still looking for bands that make music without any overtly obvious touchstones -- i.e. early r.e.m, the smiths, pavement, the pixies, early modest mouse, hell maybe even some jesus lizard? yup, still no one out there that sounds like the jesus lizard.i ll give an extra star just cuz this guy home recorded this with some loop program which must have been a b*tch. now please go make something that doesn t sound like your other group.