Track By Track (Real Time Album Review) PANDA BEAR -- TOMBOY by Patrick Hennessey

1. You Can Count On Me

Psychedelic to the max. Enjoyable harmonies. The melody jumps all over the place, almost at the whim of the musical clicks, bops, and booms underneath the voices. Not the greatest opener ever, but surely it sets a mood. Suddenly craving a smidgen of LSD.


2. Tomboy

Nice percussion. Interesting synth. Again, enjoyable harmonies. Lyrics unintelligible. The melody line hits some interesting notes. This song is definitely going places I didn't expect. I could see myself humming this tomorrow. Cool outro.


3. Slow Motion

Dope opening. Craving that LSD again. Typical song structure is out the window. Repetitive, but in a good way. Loops done right. Layers upon layers. Trying to dissect it. Keeps hitting new and interesting notes that I never could have expected when the song opened. This will be great music to leave on in the background while cleaning or writing or smoking bongs.


4. Surfer Hymn

Ocean opening, synth bells. Panda Bear always has a shadowy Beach Boys/Brian Wilson thing going on. This song sounds like it was written by Brian Wilson, if he were suffering from OCD and completely immersed in the computer age. Kind of wish somehow this was a little more stripped down.


5. Last Night At The Jetty

The opening musical notes made me laugh for some reason. Good harmonies. The clearest, most straightforward song so far. At this point, my favorite of the bunch. Great middle section. Always a loop and curve ball with these guys. Keeps me guessing. Love it. "I had a good time now/who could say I'm not..." Tried to keep up with the lyrics, they lost me. Kudos to the creepy ending. I really enjoyed this one.


6. Drone

Alarm clock opening. Wouldn't want to wake up to that noise. I'd punch a hole through the wall. Very spacey number (not Kevin Spacey). My least favorite, so far. At least try to scare me or enlighten me with a song like this. It's doing neither. Give me a demon voice or backwards messages or choruses of a million angels singing. Nothing. Single synth key ending. I guess that's the Drone. What, is a 4th grader with a Casio keyboard making this music? No me gusta. Skipping next time. At least it had a proper song title.


7. Alsatian Darn

Okay, back to the album. Interesting time signatures. Sounds like the music is going to fall apart at any moment, but stays glued together with the wonderful harmonies. Loads of handclaps. This one is cool. Nice build, keeps adding ingredients. It's amazing to me that someone can even write a song like this. What ideas do they start with? The strangely structured music? The odd time signatures? The murky melody lines? I envy musicians who can do this sort of thing. Cool number.


8. Sheherezade

Creepy piano notes. Creepy vocals. I kind of forgot that I wanted LSD before. Don't want it anymore. Maybe a joint, but I'm feeling sobriety for this track. Sparse so far. If shit don't kick in, this is another skipper, unless I leave the album on in the background while I'm doing something... Yup. We're nearing the end. Another skipped song. Two skips out of eight.


9. Friendship Bracelet

Another bit of laugh out loud music, and that's not a bad thing. This one has some interesting colors. Loads of sound modulation, but not overwhelming. Animal noises everywhere, but not real animal noises I'm guessing. Effects loops. Decent.


10. Afterburner

Nice percussion. Hmmmm... the music has a tiny bit of disco flavor to it. Digging the shit out of this one. Building momentum, always a good thing. Trippy bass. Craving that LSD again. The background flourishes are fantastic, not jarring like in some of the other songs. Now they added a little Latin flavor. A keeper. Second favorite. Longest of the album, but felt shorter than Drone.


11. Benfica

Great vocal opening. For some reason, even when the music is sparse, it's still hard to figure out the lyrics. I don't know why that is with Panda Bear. Maybe I'm just not listening close enough, but I do have headphones on. All right. Loop it up and fade it out.


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Overall, this was an enjoyable listening experience. A lot going on. I definitely have to give it another spin (even Drone), but my gut feeling tells me that there will be two tracks I'll skip out of eleven. Like I said earlier, I envy musicians who can create music like this. I'm confused as to what ideas they begin with. Probably the loops, maybe the vocals?

Initial numerical reaction: 7.4/10