A serious, yet joyful eulogy

Artist: Panda Bear (New York, NY)

Album: Young Prayer (2004)

Label: Paw Tracks (Washington, D.C.)

Sounds Like: Animal Collective, Gregorian chant

On Young Prayer it sounds as if Noah Lennox, instead of dropping acid on a camping trip with the other members of Animal Collective, took a bunch of barbiturates, picked up his acoustic guitar, and checked into a Christian monastery. Apparently written in the wake of his father's death, Young Prayer is the polar opposite of death metal. Bands like Opeth might cover the same morbid subject, but Panda Bear establishes something like Gregorian chant for the 21st century. It is pensive, meditative, and therapeutic music, but also empty of the subtle sobriety and darkness that is so essential, in my opinion, to Gregorian chant.

When it comes to death, however, a lot of artists submit to sentimentality and cheap shots at maudlin reflection. We are lucky that there are no such superficial diversions on Young Prayer. Lennox is perfectly pensive and brooding, but also successfully maintains the freaky, happy-go-lucky rapture of Animal Collective.  

Instrumentally, the album consists of indecipherable wails and moans, acoustic guitar, and piano -- containing nine untitled tracks. For the most part, they are hard to distinguish between, flowing together almost seamlessly. The first song grabs your attention immediately as a beautiful moan leads into soft, melodic strumming. The third song has a nice bouncy piano rhythm. The fifth song is the most upbeat and celebratory on the album, full of clapping and hooting. The seventh song is extremely ambient and the most aurally similar to Gregorian chant. The moans and sobs from the previous tracks become fleeting and almost inaudible, producing an eerie atmosphere.

It's important to note that I listened to Young Prayer about a year and a half after first listening to Person Pitch, which is now probably one of my favorite albums. Altogether, Person Pitch is a very different record. As Young Prayer does not have the pop sensibilities of the latter, the comparisons to the Beach Boys and Brian Wilson are inadequate. Young Prayer is a very interesting, unique album and I've never heard anything before that really compares to it.