Over the last decade Panda Bear has made quite the name for himself in the independent music scene. Between his work with Animal Collective and his solo albums Young Prayer (2004) and the critically acclaimed Person Person Pitch (2007), he has covered pop, noise, ambient and everything in between. With such a prolific background, and the hype built around singles from Tomboy, it’s impossible not to have high expectations.
Tomboy opens with the second single released from the album, “You can count on me”. This short, heavily layered and laid-back song is a great introduction to the album. Typical of Panda’s songs, the lyrics are simple and revolve around his family, seemingly about his newborn child. Strong, pounding hip-hop/dub drums work as the base for the following songs “Tomboy” and “Slow motion”, focused around strong rhythmic guitar strumming and delay-drenched vocals. Tracks like “Surfer’s hymn” and “Last night at the jetty” allow Panda Bear to re-use his famous Beach Boys-esque vocal melodies which (with the lack of multi-tracking) his live bootlegs were deprived from. In the tracks “Drone” and “Scheherazade”, Panda Bear manages to work in echoing vocals over the heavy synth and pianos - a trait that is typically left out of drone songs. However, the album seems to trail off towards the end with the last few songs lacking structure and direction. And while “Benfica” is a perfect end to the album, I can’t help but think many listeners will have lost interest by this point.
If you were to approach Tomboy as a standard pop/rock album, it would probably blow most people away but as Panda’s last album was so groundbreaking this just seems a little weaker in comparison.
4/5
Panda Bear - Tomboy
