Panda Bear – Tomboy

                    Ah yes, the moment we’ve all been waiting for has finally arrived. Tomboy dropped today. What did the critics think? Usually questions such as that one are tossed aside as people claim “Hey, just enjoy the music”. Due to Panda Bear’s heavy critical darling status, it is basically impossible to judge it without considering his previous success with Animal Collective and on his own album “Person Pitch”.  I was curious as to how critics would react to his new, considerably less sprawling soundscapes or ‘songs’ as they are popularly known.  

                Panda Bear teased us with this album for roughly the past nine months. Countless cities were visited, with him allegedly tweaking the songs over and over again. EPs got released during this period to build up interest and anticipation. Though he said a lot of these songs were worked over again and again before becoming the album versions, I don’t personally hear a lot of difference between these versions and the EP versions. As I listen to it, it reminds me of the slight disappointment I felt when Real Estate released their album which was a collection of EPs rather than an album in the proper sense of the term. Familiarity with the EPs will dull one’s senses to the full impact of the album. If you’re reading this anyway, you’ve probably listened to these songs in EP form already. 

                TheNeedleDrops panned this album, giving in a ‘light 5’. Pitchfork gave it an ‘8.5’ below Panda Bear’s magnum opus “Person Pitch”, though most didn’t expect him to really beat the ‘9.4’ unless the album versions were extremely massive re-working. Most of these songs aren’t, excluding some additional reverb and sound effects. A few songs even sound weaker in their fully polished form than they did on the EPs. “Alsatian Darn” possibly my favorite song off of all the EPs, sounds weaker with this mix, as the song doesn’t hit as strongly as it did before now that excess sonic junk has been added. 

                What makes this a harder thing to love is the more ambient direction of a lot of the songs. “Person Pitch” had ornate structures, epic lengths, and multiple hypnotic sections. “Tomboy” feels awkward in comparison. On one hand, the lengths suggest a greater pop sense. Yet the songs are too spaced out to be considered accessible. By keeping the lengths short, Panda Bear avoids diving deep into sound like he did for “Person Pitch”. In many ways, the album appears to be a compromise between experimental and accessible, without being close enough to either side to be fully satisfying. Nothing is striking on this; the experimentation comes across more as leftover ideas than anything fully fleshed out.

               

                Expectations ran extremely high for this release. Unlike Avey Tare, who most people didn’t bother paying attention to, Panda Bear had something of a reputation as having the most active musical life outside of Animal Collective. No doubt this release will be held up not only to Panda Bear’s previous expectations, but Animal Collective’s “Merriweather Post Pavilion”. Such comparisons, while somewhat unreasonable, are unavoidable. Since they are otherwise so close-lipped about what they do, people need to read into each release they have as guidance for what may come next.

                I don’t know what is next for Panda Bear. This album had raised hopes for a great deal of people. Even while it is a good album, it is not a great album. Unfortunately people will interpret ‘good’ in this instance with the term ‘not great’ rather than accepting it as a fairly decent addition to Panda Bear’s discography. Panda Bear didn’t help things with constantly resetting the release date and killing off a great deal of buzz and goodwill of various music reviewers. Personally, I’d say listen to it yourself and form your own opinion. Reviews of this are too scatter-shot to summarize, but just don’t expect another Person Pitch.

The King of Limbs

                Since I’m a music blog, I’m contractually obligated to tell you Radiohead released an album on Friday called “The King of the Limbs”. Honestly, I find it a bit unchill how their album celebrates a guy who sells severed limbs to hospitals, but that’s a whole other argument altogether. I got the album, listened to it, and realized I’m on the wrong side of 20 for this kind of music.

                Radiohead exploits the gray zone between pop and experimental, without being satisfying in either respect. I used to like Radiohead as a teenager, lapping up “Ok Computer” and “Kid A”. While I still enjoy both those albums, I don’t have the same level of fondness I used to have. Rather, as I listen to Thom Yorke’s incessant whining, I wonder was I this insufferable as a teenager? Was I really this angst-ridden, over a situation which didn’t merit such a dark response? Oh boo-hoo, I grew up in a suburb where I didn’t belong.  My life was so hard.

                If you’re under the age of 20, this kind of stuff should resonate. You ought to be able to connect with Thom Yorke’s opaque lyrics talking about his poor suffering life:

                “Oh poor me, I’m worth several hundred million dollars. I sell albums to kids who think they have actual problems. People generally find me weird and allow me to do crazy spastic dances under the pretense of ‘art’. Everybody has to like my albums or suffer the consequences of being ostracized as a ‘snob’ or ‘idiot’.”

                Kids I’m certain sit in the back of the bus, connecting with this on some level. I know I did. They’re sad they live in a smaller split level than their friends. Wearing that Radiohead sharp-toothed teddy bear patch, they feel the false discomfort Thom expresses. Life is hard when you live at home in an upper-middle class suburb and are fully financially supported by your parents. 

                What bothers me most is how Radiohead seems to have coasted most of this decade. Considering the ever-decreasing quality of their product, you’d think someone might be willing to tell them to be a bit more ambitious in their undertakings. Simply using a different marketing ploy isn’t the same as producing a product on par with their late 90s stuff. Now they have some sort of critical tenure. 

                Critical reception is guaranteed to be warm. Pitchfork has a grading system specifically for the band, grading on a scale from 9.0 to 10.0, rather than something more in line with the actual item itself. Those who do offer constructive criticism (like the Needle Drop, kudos to you good sir) are attacked by a rabid, internet-dwelling fan base. Indeed, their fan base is so dedicated I wonder whether or not it ought to count as a cult. Probably the fact its fan base tends to be so articulate adds to their aurora. 

                “Oh, we can’t be bad, look at all the colorful adjectives and references people use when writing about how great we are.” –Thom Yorke 

                Personally, I don’t like what’s happening. Radiohead is becoming a ‘dinosaur act’ where they only need to occasionally come out with a product every couple years. No matter how far they’ve fallen, they are graded on a curve since they are Radiohead. I’m upset because I don’t want such a thing to happen, because I think they were good, can still be good and simply fell into a rut where they could produce a product with a near-guarantee people will purchase it. Rather than saying ‘Radiohead is stupid. I never listened to them.’ I did actually listen to them, hence why I have so much concern for where they are going (or not going in their case). 

                Each one of Radiohead’s post OK Computer or Kid A offered me enough to latch onto, whether it was “Knives Out” from Amnesiac, “A Punchup at a Wedding” from Hail to the Thief, or “Jigsaw Falling Into Place” from In Rainbows. Here, I can’t find anything which encourages me to continue following them. Maybe this is where I finally leave them for good, unable to find any bright spots alluding to a bright future as a band.  My friends feel differently of course. 

                Reading my friends’ Facebook walls for this, I worry. All of them appear to be too old for this kind of moping. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe it is good. Having listened to it, I don’t see any evidence of quality. Instead, they just took some songs from random sessions, said “Hey, that doesn’t sound totally half-assed, let’s release that” and they did it. Thom Yorke did a spastic dance for a music video and they’re done. 

 How someone after the age of 20 finding meaning in this worries me. Sure, this works wonders as you brood by yourself in your youth, but I thought people were supposed to grow out of this feeling. As I grow older, Radiohead doesn’t. It stays in the same mood, same age, covering the same territory, constantly disappointed by some unspeakable, unknowable force. I wanted them to grow old with me, to mature into constantly new sounds. 

Radiohead needs to grow up. I did.