The Score

BASIC CHANNEL LUOMO DETTINGER WOLFGANGE VOIGT CAT STEVENS THE POLICE SCOTT WALKER DAFT PUNK THE TORNADOES THE ZOMBIES MOODYMAN ERIK SATIE MADLIB JONATHAN RICHMAN ROY ORBISON KING TUBBY CAETANO VELOSO BLACK DICE SAM COOKE PINK FLOYD SPARKS THE BEACH BOYS EVERYTHING BUT THE GIRL THE ORB BASEMENT JAXX VASHTI BUNYAN S.E. ROGIE JAY DEE PHOENIX ARIEL PINK ROBERT HOOD APHEX TWIN ARTHUR RUSSEL SRC AIR TOM JOBIM THE BEATLES MICHAEL JACKSON BENJAMIN DIAMOND SYD BARRETT JAY-Z TALK TALK BLACK FLAG HALL AND OATES LEE PERRY BJORN OLSSON CAN ISOLEE CNN CHIRS BELL KYLIE MINOGUE RICARDO VILLALOBOS ENNIO MORRICONE LOUVIN BROTHERS METTALICA WU TANG CLAN SPACEMENT 3 CINDY LAUPER NINA SIMONE THE CLIENTELE MARKUS GUENTNER PETE ROCK THE STROKES DR DRE CARSTEN JOST NOTORIOUS B.I.G. DURAN DURAN THE CHILLS PORTISHEAD NIRVANA ODB ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN ELO KRAFTWERK ENYA NEU EVERYLY BROTHERS THE FREE DESIGN SKIP SPENCE ERIK B AND RAKIM NICO THE KINKS GEORGE MICHAEL SALZ BOB MARLEY GHOSTFACE KILLAH GRATEFUL DEAD DOCE HORACE ANDY INCREDIBLE STRING BAND THE EQUALS JONI MITCHELL KAITO LINDA PERHACS LOVE MARIA CALLAS ANTONIO VARIACOES HARRY MUDIE BLACK SABBATH NAS PHIL COLLINS QUEEN RIDE GANG STARR THE STOOGES NEW ORDER THEORUM…

Panda Bear, well known as a member of the group Animal Collective proves himself to be more adept than his group at crafting an album inspired and motivated by those you find above. Perfect Pitch is an album that is mostly downbeat in mood. Surprisingly it ends up feeling more of its electronic influences than it’s more mainstream or pop orientated cousins, in terms of tone. Many of the tracks have an out and out ambient flavour to them that certainly recall part The Orb, part Aphex Twin. The track I’m Not stands out in this regard with a winding, echo heavy lead over some hypnotic, looped and manipulated backing vocals. This is the kind of track that will cause some to disregard this album because of it being “difficult” or some sort but Perfect Pitch is as much about setting a mood and setting than creating beautiful, addictive melodic hooks.

Speaking of beautiful and addictive melodic hooks, the second and third tracks on this album delight in a frightful manner. Starting off slowly, Take Pills builds up to a sing-a-long, punchy and powerful refrain.

Take one day at a time
Everything else you can leave behind
Only one thing at a time
Anything more really hurts your mind
I don’t want for us to
Take pills anymore
Not that it’s bad
I don’t want for us to take pills
because we’re stronger
and we don’t need them.

This is, in a way, Perfect Pitch’s greatest asset and its weakness. The prolonged nature of the tracks, even those that contain some great pop moments could definitely be a factor in turning people off this album. About half of these tracks have an ambient or chill-out factor to them. Taken as a whole, this is a delightfully buoyant and joyful album that contains many melodies that will stick in your brain. Tracks taken in isolation however may give you the wrong impression and lead to some angry shout time. Good Girl/Carrots doesn’t attract itself to you early on but at around the four and a half minute mark, Lennox’s bouncy falsetto enters the equation and demands an immediate reappraisal.

Perfect Pitch certainly lies in the area where time is a requirement, in order to fully appreciate how good this album is. This is also probably a better album than Strawberry Jam, owing mostly to its unity of vision and uncompromising track time which leaves room for growth and progression of concept. Panda Bear’s third album should be listened to in whole and has less obvious single moments than its Animal Collective counterpart which can be extracted for your listening pleasure.

Despite that this album’s quiet confidence shines through for the mainstream on two tracks in particular. The aforementioned Take Pills and eleven minute Bros. Whether this song was written about them lot that were-a-wondering “when will I, will I be famous” or not, what is clear is that for about six minutes you have a mighty fine pop song that could topple the charts and convince girls under twelve that there is more to the art of the single than interconnected marketing know-how.

Panda Bear’s use of sampling is evident on Bros which appears to contain a lift from I’ve Found a Love, a Cat Stevens song, as featured on his orchestral pop debut Matthew and Son. So all you Rock lot who cherish “originality” and use this person as your poster boy of that bastion of quality, widen your horizons and stop using Lennox as a means to bash poor helpless Kanye. Many of the tracks on here contain some use of sampling, further giving the impression of this as the end result of a bed-room project. Lennox’s voice is a powerful means of subverting the sometimes simplistic nature of the lyrics. An innocence and fragile sincerity pervades the album that helps to off-set the problems that this album may otherwise have.

Person Pitch is a beautiful melting pot of ideas and styles that somehow comes across as naturally occurring and without pretence. If you hold the influences listed above as representing your kind of music, I would recommend a purchase of this album immediately.