Latest Release
- AUG 18, 2023
- 9 Songs
- Random Access Memories · 2013
- ZUSHI · 2020
- Person Pitch · 2005
- Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper (Bonus Mr Noah EP Edition) · 2015
- Affection · 2024
- Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper (Bonus Mr Noah EP Edition) · 2014
- Person Pitch · 2005
- Tomboy · 2011
- Person Pitch · 2007
- Re: This Is Why · 2023
Essential Albums
- In 2007, no one saw Person Pitch coming. The third solo album from Animal Collective member Noah Lennox—recording as Panda Bear—was an absolute revelation to anyone who’d been closely following not only his music, but the general trajectory of indie as a whole. Person Pitch’s bright and melancholic electronic pop sound was worlds away from his previous record, 2004’s meditative and monastic Young Prayer. And though the wild-eyed melodic bursts of Animal Collective’s 2004 breakout Sung Tongs gestured towards Person Pitch’s impossibly lush Brian Wilson-isms, nothing about Sung Tongs’ sparse structure hinted at the absolute swarm of sound Lennox would conjure on this landmark of an album. Beyond creating its own totally unique sonic world, Person Pitch proved massively influential on an entire generation of DIY musicians, and is considered one of the building blocks for the 2010s chillwave subgenre. Its reach extended to the other members of Animal Collective themselves, who drew from Lennox’s love of the low end for their own epochal Merriweather Post Pavilion in 2009. Despite Person Pitch’s seismic impact on indie, its seven songs—five relative miniatures anchored by two sweeping epics (the oceanic “Bros” and the hypnotic raga of “Good Girl/Carrots”)—have an intimate, homespun feel. It’s electronic music with an unusual tactility; you can practically feel Lennox’s fingers press the buttons on the Boss SP-303 sampler that he used to assemble the album. His lyrics are achingly personal, even as they resemble sparse mantras and nakedly sincere koans, from his meditations about depression on the gently shaking “Take Pills”’ to the devotional pleas for authenticity on the booming “Comfy in Nautica.” Anchoring it all is Lennox’s uncanny beam of a voice, which rings like a bell and carries a distinct loveliness. It’s a record that, beneath thickets of dense and disorienting sound, isn’t afraid to wear its heart on its sleeve—a sense of honest expression that has cemented Person Pitch as a generational classic, and defines Lennox’s singular career as a whole.
Albums
- 2023
- 2007
- 2004
- 2022
- 2022
- 2022
- 2022
- 2022
Artist Playlists
- One genre-defying indie band isn't ambitious enough for Noah Lennox.
- 2014
Compilations
Appears On
About Panda Bear
Already highly influential as a member of Animal Collective, Panda Bear altered the course of indie rock even further with his work as a solo artist. His reverb-saturated vocal harmonies take notes from the Beach Boys, while his sample-based songwriting brings in techniques borrowed from hip-hop producers such as Madlib and Pete Rock, as well as atmospheric techno labels like Kompakt and Dial. His 2007 full-length Person Pitch helped reframe the use of samples in indie rock, and Panda Bear's synthesis of electronic production, emotionally vulnerable lyricism, and psychedelic spirit evolved on subsequent albums like 2019's Buoys and his 2022 collaboration with Sonic Boom, Reset.
- HOMETOWN
- Charlottesville, VA, United States
- BORN
- July 17, 1978
- GENRE
- Alternative