panda bear by anika heinz

A Week With Panda Bear's "Person Pitch": Day 3

18 May 2007
tell your friends... tell your friends...

Words by Eric Spiegelberg // Illustration by Anika Heinz

It’s extremely difficult to conjure up the feelings one had as a child. The natural joy of a first goal in soccer or homerun in baseball etc.. seldom shows its face past the age of 18 for most of us. Don’t get me wrong, joy still exists beyond that age but not in the same innocent care-free way. Sometimes we find ways of attaining those unbridled emotions. Whether it’s as small as blowing off work on a beautiful day to go fishing or as big as picking up and moving on the drop of a dime. On the other hand, those feelings can also formulate naturally by finding and being with the love of your life and/or the birth of your child. While we all encounter these blessings as they come and savor every bit of them, Animal Collective’s Panda Bear harnesses his own joyous/childlike experiences and expresses them on Person Pitch. It opens up with the philosophical declaration “Comfy in Nautica.” The swirling textures of claps and chants along with positive lyrics make for an important opener to set the overall mood. From there, the album takes a rather personal tone with “Take Pills.” The song begins with a very peaceful, sort of drowned out drone with underwater samples on top of each other. Then almost transcendentally, the song transforms into a pop gem declaring, “I don’t want for us to take pills anymore…” in the chorus. Interpretations vary I’m sure but listening to “Take Pills,” on headphones you really feel the overmedicated swollen head of ideas, and breaking through that into the best of melodies and clarity. The pattern of life-changing experiences transfixing themselves into beautiful harmonious songs is evident throughout the entire record. While it’s not exactly a danceable record, one can easily reach head bobbing status on each one of its songs and within minutes be entranced by the layers of samples. Lennox felt these lyrics and music, the way I felt when my son was born four years ago, the way i felt when I had to let go of most of my friends to be with my girl. In a way, this record made Panda Bear. We all have ways of getting back the childlike feelings and raw emotions we once had. Person Pitch is simply a perfect transcription of these though music.

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