Reset

Panda Bear & Sonic Boom

Noah Lennox, also known as Panda Bear, has been quite busy recently. We got an Animal Collective record earlier this year, and now he's back with another project. Although this time, his frequent collaborator Sonic Boom is receiving equal credit for the first time, sharing in not only production duties, but vocal duties as well. It's funny actually, I couldn't even tell that the two were trading vocal parts since their voices share many qualities. What I can say positively about this album is that it definitely has a cohesive sound that is warm and quaint. The foundation for each track mostly consists of an acoustic guitar loop that feels pulled right out of the 60s, some subtle percussion, and some swirling, buzzing, surreal electronics. It's pretty fun, especially in the cases of Gettin' to the Point and Everyday which both have such jovial moods.

The album's drawback, however, is its incredibly repetitive nature. Songs start and finish in nearly identical fashion with little to no development in between. I think it works fine for some of the shorter tracks (specifically the ones I already mentioned), but once you get around the four or five minute range, it becomes apparent that perhaps the duo is working on limited ideas. In addition to that, there was one real blunder of a track, and that's Danger. The longest track on the record suffers a lot from repetition, but more than that, the vocals on this one are very, very rough. Lennox's boyish voice was never the most perfect pitch wise, but his performances and the way he manipulates his voice often more than make up for it. On this track though, Lennox's voice sounds uncharacteristically thin, weak, and barely on key. At least in the case of all the other tracks, the worst I can say is that it tends to just fade in the background. Danger is just too sour to ignore. On the surface, Reset feels like a really cool mash up of vintage 60s psychedelic pop with a pristine, otherworldly electronic polish. However, digging deeper reveals that there isn't really much more to explore beyond that.