One of the most exciting records so far this 2025 is "Sinister Grift" by Panda Bear aka Noah Lennox who delivers a fantastic beachy and relaxed record full of swell-crafted and done with care and patience songs, "Sinister Grift" is his first solo release since 2019’s Buoys.
Now with Sinister Grift he presents washed-out synths and dreamy, Beach Boys-descendant vocal harmonies of earlier Panda Bear output are still present, but they're joined here by electric guitars, full kit drums, bass, and songs that adhere to more traditional rock band structures.
The opener "Praise" is a notably straightforward full of overlapping melodies, with call-and-response vocals and a jarringly cheery instrumental, with "50mg" you have lazy and tropical, with the sliding guitar lines sailing by acidic synth blurbs, "Just as Well" takes this beachy essence even further with its shuffling yacht rock rhythm. The wide-open feel of the arrangements, the easily discernible instruments, and the uncharacteristically bubbly tone of the songs all give Sinister Grift the facade of being a friendly, lived-in, full-band effort.
"Ferry Lady" is another outstanding track that comes in halfway through the album with its swishy rhythm and lackadaisical, lost-in-thought lyrics, it's easy to envision Panda Bear and a smiling backing band playing these tunes as they drift by on a boat under cloudless skies. The albums has their musical guest like Cindy Lee who plays a guitar solo on the fantastic "Defense" and there are contributions from all of Lennox's Animal Collective bandmates and Spirit of the Beehive's Rivka Ravede, Lennox plays most of the instruments himself and the majority of the vocals are his signature stacks of reverb-coated self-harmonizing.
The last leg of the album is a little cooler and more mysterious than the rest, you have the atmospheric "Left in the Cold" is darkly dreamy and the interesting "Elegy for Noah Lou" has a scattered, broken way about it but even in these less extroverted moments. Sinister Grift is a significant chapter in the Panda Bear story if only for how it finds Lennox shedding some of the stubborn uneasiness that's so long been part of his music. While still mainly the product of a solitary mind, the album is perhaps the least lonely Panda Bear has sounded to date.
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