Albums to watch

Tomboy

Panda Bear

Tomboy

Fourth solo album from Animal Collective founding member Noah Lennox

ADM rating[?]

7.5

Label
Paw Tracks
UK Release date
11/04/2011
US Release date
12/04/2011
  1. 9.5 |   The Quietus

    Tomboy is Panda Bear at the peak of his powers...one of the most essential Animal Collective releases to date
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  2. 9.1 |   A.V. Club

    Lennox has perfected the genre he helped create on Tomboy, while setting himself apart from it
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  3. 9.0 |   Rave Magazine

    Lennox’s unique vocal style and unassuming songwriting remain utterly compelling. Panda Bear continues to forge his own path and it continues to be a wonderful path to follow
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  4. 9.0 |   Consequence Of Sound

    Aside from being a top-notch album musically, it very well may be Lennox’s most accessible work to date – at least with Panda Bear
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  5. 9.0 |   Bowlegs

    Is there nothing this man can’t do? It’s like he has a secret formul
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  6. 9.0 |   No Ripcord

    Another covertly personal album that reflects much of the psychedelic and experimental influences of his past, while still maintaining an innovative and pleasing sound
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  7. 9.0 |   The Line Of Best Fit

    The fourth truly outstanding offering from the Animal Collective camp in a row – and just as special as its much-feted predecessor
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  8. 8.5 |   Pitchfork

    Music that's both otherworldly and familiar-on-first-listen
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  9. 8.5 |   Beats Per Minute

    The application of heavy reverb and delay feels less about looking back than about looking in
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  10. 8.0 |   The Observer

    There is a lot going on, all the time, but rather than being disorientating, its complexities are something to luxuriate and lose yourself in
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  11. 8.0 |   Uncut

    Largely consists of variations on one sonic texture - the vocals are embedded in echo chambers, bass tones are almost totally absent
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  12. 8.0 |   Spin

    Panda Bear's fourth album scales back, proffering succinctness rather than sprawl, exchanging samplers for sequencers, in favor of added warmth and intimacy
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  13. 8.0 |   The Skinny

    Tomboy is a wildly eclectic and unpredictable beast
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  14. 8.0 |   BBC

    A chilled-out triumph
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  15. 8.0 |   The Guardian

    Dense, oppressive and utterly hypnotic, so detailed and minutely inflected that you become helplessly absorbed
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  16. 8.0 |   State

    Tomboy seems to be a work that offers more than just candy sweet melodic hooks on a conveyer belt – which its predecessor seemed to be preoccupied with
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  17. 8.0 |   Drowned In Sound

    Panda’s vocals are the defining and binding sound, warping and slowing the surprisingly diverse music around them into a blissful, abstracted homogeneity
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  18. 7.5 |   Prefix

    Tomboy’s best quality is its consistency with Lennox’s vision, in spite of the critical hullabaloo surrounding it
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  19. 7.0 |   NME

    This is still recognisably a Panda Bear album; it just feels naked. Print edition only

  20. 7.0 |   Tiny Mix Tapes

    A series of more or less self-conscious experiments in sonic form
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  21. 7.0 |   Rolling Stone

    If it's a bit less stunning than 2007's Person Pitch, it's also more focused
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  22. 7.0 |   The Fly

    Panda Bear at his most accessible
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  23. 6.0 |   Slant Magazine

    Though rich and dreamlike, Panda Bear's latest is too tedious, too bloated, and far too serious to be anything more than an above-average record
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  24. 6.0 |   Under The Radar

    Tomboy’s clear highpoint is “Surfer’s Hymn,” which also happens to be the clearest descendant of Person Pitch
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  25. 6.0 |   The Independent

    In places it sounds like Burial meets Brian Wilson, while elsewhere the vocals recall the Everly Brothers or Fleet Foxes heard through sheets of gauze
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  26. 6.0 |   Blurt

    Simpler and more tangible than earlier output, but at the cost of variety
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  27. 6.0 |   Eye Weekly

    Tomboy can be a total slog, eschewing its predecessor’s rhythmic verve for dubby murkiness
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  28. 6.0 |   musicOMH

    Tomboy not only lacks Animal Collective's recent experiments with rhythm and time, but also lacks the brilliantly designed balance and blend of Person Pitch
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  29. 6.0 |   PopMatters

    He eschews legibility, of structure, melody, and ambient coherence, so as not to distract from details
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  30. 6.0 |   Q

    Better to dabble your toes in this record than plunge right in. Print edition only

  31. 4.0 |   Mojo

    Feels rhythmically constrained and sonically muted. Print edition only


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Panda Bear: Tomboy

  • Download full album for just £7.99
  • 1. You Can Count On Me £0.99
  • 2. Tomboy £0.99
  • 3. Slow Motion £0.99
  • 4. Surfer's Hymn £0.99
  • 5. Last Night At The Jetty £0.99
  • 6. Drone £0.99
  • 7. Alsatian Darn £0.99
  • 8. Sheherezade £0.99
  • 9. Friendship Bracelet £0.99
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