the tinyblog

#04: Panda Bear - Person Pitch

I tried to explain Person Pitch to someone for the first time like this: Imagine some gentle percussion and train sounds, with an echoey Beach Boys' Brian Wilson voice in the background.

Then I played it for the person and they nodded, "That was a pretty good description."

Well, it's a pretty good description so you have some point of reference, but it doesn't really describe the cornucopia of sounds you're going to get when you decide to dig into this one.

There isn't another album musically like it released this year. There's albums lower on the top ten that I've listened to far more, but I don't think listenability is the highest order. I think there's some kind of (beauty + invention) equation that's important.

My favorite song is probably still "Take Pills". He says, "I don't want for us to take pills anymore (not that it's bad)." over and over again. Then, there's a watery rush and he explains why:

Take one day at a time
Anything more really hurts your mind
Only one thing at a time
Everything else you can leave behind
I don't want for us to
Take pills
Anymore
Not that its bad
I don't want for us to take pills
Because we're stronger
And we don't need them

Imagine that with a bunch of harmonies and elevator dings, hand claps, hoots and maybe some tambourine and you get the general idea.

It sounds weird, and it is. Panda Bear is kind of a side project of people in Animal Collective, another band in the 'freak folk' realm, but where I find Animal Collective goes over the line of what's coherent and friendly, Panda Bear seems to make it all one unified whole. It teeters to the edge of noise sometimes, but mostly succeeds in being a both exciting and experimental album AND being a tender and real expression you can listen to with other people and not alienate them. It's a strange little jewel of an album, and it's my friend.