Noah Lennox’s 2019 album Buoys was supposed to mark a new era for the musician. At the time of its release, Lennox, a.k.a. Panda Bear, said that he was intent on making music that would “feel familiar to a young person’s ears,” only for the Animal Collective member to immediately change course with his nostalgic 2022 team-up with Sonic Boom, Reset.
That album harkened back to midcentury traditional pop and, more than any of Lennox’s solo efforts, the Beach Boys. And if Reset was his Beach Boys album, then Lennox’s latest, Sinister Grift, is his attempt at crafting something in the key of Jimmy Buffet. But while it represents the furthest that he’s ventured into rock terrain, and the fun that he has experimenting is undeniable, there’s also a sense that he’s not entirely comfortable with this sound.
Lennox feels most at home crafting music that’s awash in glorious layers of psychedelic reverb and synthesizers, and we get a sense of that on tracks like “Ferry Lady,” which teems with insect-like textures and gusty synths. But by and large, this is the most that Lennox has sounded like a live act, with the loops and samples collaged into blissed-out psych-pop euphoria that we’ve come to expect from him largely replaced by live drumming throughout.
The majority of the tracks on the first two-thirds of the album are jaunty midtempo tropical rock. “50mg” is slathered with a wah-wah synth and pedal steel fit for the soundtrack of an acid western, and “Just as Well,” like closer “Defense,” is punctuated by bursts of electric riffs. The latter features a guest solo by Cindy Lee that’s capably played but disconnected from the songs that immediately precede it. That’s, in part, because Lennox frontloads Sinister Grift with cheerier, hookier songs and annexes the longer, more wandering tracks to the back half. It’s a sequencing strategy that makes for a somewhat disjointed and uneven listening experience.
Misplaced though they may be, the back-to-back “Left in the Cold” and “Elegy for Noah Lou” are gorgeous all the same and find Lennox more firmly in his element. The former is one of those Panda Bear songs that sounds as if it’s been submerged in water. A gentle acoustic riff guides us through a cavernous expanse, accompanied by a particularly ghostly vocal.
Elsewhere, the way Lennox sings, “I look for you/For you/Only for you,” on “Elegy for Noah Lou,” holding on the last word comically long, feels undeniably goofy, but it nicely undercuts the potentially self-serious vibe of the song. This affable and good-natured spirit runs throughout Sinister Grift, ensuring that while much of the album finds Lennox rockily venturing into uncharted territory, his earnest sweetness remains intact.
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