With Panda Bear’s newest record Sinister Grift, Noah Lennox collaborated with Animal Collective bandmate Josh Dibb to produce his first solo project in five years. It’s an album striving to evoke a certain mood, with the opening side of the LP using warm instruments to remind you of the seaside and summer weather.

The sunny vacation vibe is prevalent throughout the first half, with bouncy guitar chords that are playful and fun. It feels laidback and casual, and there’s a fluidity in the playing, an airiness that lifts up each of the tracks. The emphasis on the drums adds a punchiness, urging you to dance and be swept up in the rhythm. On ‘Anywhere but Here’, Lennox is accompanied by Nadja Lennox, who sings verses in Portuguese, a contrast that engages the listener further and helps to immerse them in the dreamy, sunny haze of each track. With the record worked on at Lennox’s home in Lisbon, the seaside and summery tone is easily explained with the inspiration taken from his environment, which is heard clearly in the songwriting.

With singing on every song, the vocals can elevate the song, like on ‘Elegy for Noah Lou’, but the words themselves don’t feel especially important. Oftentimes, the goal of the tracks, and record as a whole, is to evoke a certain emotion and build a mesmerising world with the tone and atmosphere. Therefore, the lyrics can feel like an afterthought, lacking depth or substance and instead feeling like there are lyrics out of necessity rather than anything else. This would explain the heavy use of repetition, heard on ‘Just as Well’, which repeats the lines “Got nothing left to lose,” and “Gonna try my luck on the outside,” at separate moments.

Heartache is a recurring theme on the record, sometimes shrouded amidst the smooth and warm guitars. “Now we don’t care, thought we’d be friends again,” from ‘Ferry Lady’; “Looking for defense, nothing left to do but hang my head and cry,” from ‘Defense’; and “What else can I do?” From ‘Ends Meet’ all expressing this theme, the final example is sung beautifully in the song as it conveys the yearning emotion so powerfully.

The length of the songs on the LP is an issue, with 70% of the tracks being over 4 minutes long and rarely does that length feel justified. The instrumentation often sounds monotonous, very few changes occurring to continue to engage the listeners’ attention, and while the goal for a yacht-rock style listen is achieved, it is undermined by the songs overstaying their welcome. The listener runs the risk of turning off and zoning out from the album, a greater risk then emerging of the work being forgotten. For an easy listen, especially in a place like the beach, this isn’t an issue, but for a focused listen, the issue emerges.

The greatest strength of the project lies in the latter half. There is a tone shift that is best represented by the instruments moving away from bouncy guitars to a slower and more muted approach. There is a mysteriousness in these tracks, notably starting on ‘Venom’s In’ and running until ‘Elegy for Noah Lou’. Lennox’s vocals are hushed but full of emotion and tenderness, and the tracks are so adept at creating atmosphere that they engulf the listener and can feel like a memory/dream sequence. The magnum opus of the project comes with the closer ‘Defense’. The addition of Cindy Lee (Patrick Flegel) takes the song to previously untouched heights with a stunning and intricate guitar that plays alongside the lead guitar, creating this beautiful echo effect. The guitar solo halfway through adds further depth, and the return to a jauntier, more upbeat energy perfectly closes the record.

While Sinister Grift has its flaws, Lennox strives to create a world sonically with the dreamy guitars and punchy drums. He succeeds, with the help of his Animal Collective bandmates, and with the latter half of the album, he also manages to write intriguing and memorable tracks that exist in the world of the LP while also feeling totally singular.

Pre-order Sinister Grift HERE