As tangled and intricate as Animal Collective’s music may sometimes seem, it can really be boiled down into two simple components: songs written by David Portner (aka Avey Tare) and songs written by Noah Lennox (aka Panda Bear). Most fans of the band usually prefer one songwriter to the other, and I happen to be more partial to Lennox’s meditative offerings than Portner’s freak-influenced jams.
Which is all really just a roundabout way of explaining why I got more excited about the announcement of Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper, Lennox’s first solo effort since 2011’s Tomboy, than I have for any Animal Collective record.
Yet unlike Lennox’s two previous records, which function as ventures into the mind of one of the music world’s most fascinating introverts, the songs that comprise Grim Reaper feel removed from their creator. Yes, there are all the usual bells and whistles of a Panda Bear record (as in Lennox maneuvering from feelings of bliss to being one sad panda at the drop of a hat), but each track feels like a verbatim rehashing of a mental state he’s already visited.
Thankfully, Lennox’s beatwork on Grim Reaper sounds more inspired than his vocal material; like on Tomboy, the instrumentals here subsist on a steady diet of pulsating beats looped to their breaking points, ranging somewhere between the clumpiness of early single “Mr Noah” and the disarming, simple beauty of “Tropic of Cancer.”
And Grim Reaper’s highlights—namely “Boys Latin” and “Selfish Gene”—rank up there with some of Lennox’s best work. But there are just too many turnoffs amongst them (the seven-minute “Come to Your Senses” and “Principe Real,” for example) to be able to spin this thing as a front to back listen.
Though it’s taken years for each of Lennox’s last two records to really sink into my skin, I don’t see Grim Reaper revealing too much more of itself over time. Rather, the record feels like a nice slab of bamboo comfort food—something that doesn’t reach out and grab you, but is content with being listened to when the mood arises.