Panda Bear Person Pitch
(Paw Tracks) Buy it from Insound
What am I not getting? Can someone tell me why the industrial noise on this album is louder than the songs? Or why Noah Lennox and his crew are singing to an unseen crowd in some large room down the hall? Am I having some twisted Kafka-inspired dream in which I move through the corridors of a large building, peering into rooms, looking for the band that I hear just off in the distance?
Here's what bothers me most about Person Pitch: the songs that I can barely make out actually sound pretty good. In fact, I'd really like to HEAR them. But Lennox has different ideas. For some reason he feels the need to drown his wonderful melodies and pleasing harmonies in a soup of reverb, and then cracks handfuls of clatter on top like so many saltines. And so we have a product that some might call "ambient" or a "mood piece", or some other descriptor for a piece of music that people desperately want to but ultimately fail to make any emotional connection with.
How do you classify music that is simultaneously beautiful and emotionally distant? I can only come up with a compromise, which is to acknowledge both its merits and its faults. On the plus side of the ledger we have the aforementioned beauty; swirling melodies, layered harmonies and Wilsonian arrangements. Occasionally the record lapses into a hypnotic sublimity, like on I'm Not, where the looped vocals really do "set a mood" and manage to pull you in, resulting in a rare moment of engagement. Also, on the 12 minute centerpiece Bros, the repetitive, insistent rhythm recalls the best moments of Animal Collective. It's not easy to remain edgy and urgent for 12 whole minutes but Lennox pulls it off.
The negatives I've already outlined. At times the distance and the noise combine to make the music seem pointless as well as irritating, like on the opening to Take Pills, large sections of Good Girl/Carrots, and most of Search for Delicious. Again, I return to my opening question; what am I not getting? What is the point of recording a cd of beautiful music that hides behind a wall of racket and haze?
There's another issue. The beautiful melodies and harmonies don't actually go anywhere, they just kind of float in and out of earshot, failing to develop or do anything harmonically interesting. I understand, this is ambient music or hypnotic freak folk or whatever and it's doing what it's supposed to do - just be. Fair enough, as large portions of this record make for enjoyable listening and most fans partial to this kind of music, not minding the noise and still under the influence of potent narcotics, will have little to complain about. But I need to make a judgment as to its lasting value and its success as an artistic endeavor, and in the final analysis the beauty and bliss on Person Pitch is ephemeral, disengaged and sinking in a sea of indulgence.
I really believe there is a wonderful record lying at the bottom of this ocean of noise. Too bad Panda Bear wouldn't let us hear it.
26 March, 2007 - 17:41 — Alan Shulman
Comments for Person Pitch review
Guess it isn't for you ;/
I can't really answer your question, about what you're missing in this album. For me, the album does leave me "reaching", but that's part of what makes it so good. The sounds and words are worth reaching for, and there are payoffs throughout which can be enjoyed even at a distance. A song like Ponytail wouldn't make much sense with Noah's voice sitting up front in the mix with that studio B feel. It wouldn't match the instrumentation which is beautiful in itself.
I feel like this carries out in some way to each song on the album. As a whole he had to make a choice of whether the music would make sense being in your face, or a bit more distant, and I think his choice to swing towards an ambient album coincides with the subject matter of his lyrics.
Mushed Up
listen to it on mushrooms. you'll hear it.
A year and a half later
I've been living with this record for a year and a half, and now, I'm finally willing to agree (which I hate doing) with Pitchfork: It was the best record of 2007. Why? Well, it goes to a question you asked:
What is the point of recording a cd of beautiful music that hides behind a wall of racket and haze?
That, sir, IS the point. Lennox is not Brian Wilson, to whom he is so often compared. Neither is this record "Pet Sounds." It is, however, the postmodern equivalent to "Pet Sounds," or perhaps can be better seen as a mash-up of "Pet Sounds" and My Bloody Valentine's "Loveless" -- not necessarily as good as either, but drawing equally, and successfully, from both.
When you ask the above question, I wonder if you were thinking at all about "Loveless," which, in my opinion, was the best record of the '90s. Some critics (though admittedly not most) dismissed that as something along the lines of "beautiful music that hides behind a wall of racket and haze." And in a very real way, it is. That was the point -- Kevin Shields was evoking the haziness of thought and sound that one hears after a night on E in clubs. It's the post-psychedelic psychedelia, where one's ears are blow, but one still hears a lot of noise -- including some noise that's not even there. Beneath amazing tunes like "Only Shallow" and "When You Sleep" are outstanding Brit-pop songs that would get people bouncing more than even the masters of Brit-pop (say, Pulp or Blur) would -- but Shields wasn't interested in making that record.
Similarly, Lennox here could've released what essentially would be "Pet Sounds," an album of melancholic beauty that would evoke instantaneous comparisons to Brian Wilson. That record is, in fact, here. But, as you say, it's buried, because "Pet Sounds" has already been done. Why rehash it? Why not try something new?
Is "Person Pitch" as good as "Pet Sounds" or "Loveless?" No. Of course not. But after hearing this, I'm absolutely convinced that Noah Lennox can, by himself or with his Collective, give us an album as perfect as either one. And frankly, "Person Pitch" may not quite reach those heights, but it comes damned close.
A well considered response...
I just wrote a really lengthy response you to message and my browser devoured it when I clicked "submit". I'll try again.
Thanks for your response to the review and for putting forward an eloquent argument for "Person Pitch". It's refreshing to read something along these lines in our discussion threads, rather than things like "you suck" or, worse still, "buy Viagra".
As a fan of the record, I agree with your arguments; it wasn't my absolute favourite of 2007, but definitely top 10 material. In fact, last December we named it No Ripcord's #6 album of 2007, 6 places ahead of "Strawberry Jam" which scored ten in our review. Strange, huh?
I haven't listened to it much since, but I must say I'm looking forward to Lennox's next solo outing, perhaps even more than I am to Animal Collective's new one.
Post new comment