Dolphin Is The New Panda Bear

Just as the Music Desk was lamenting that modern rock's best years are apparently now past (by three years, not the usual boomers' 30 years), a slew of great new music suddenly appears on the horizon. Some has already been released, some leaked, and some only teased, but if the last few months' product is any indication, 2019 maybe the best year for new music since 2015.

We can start anywhere, and starting with Panda Bear's new album Buoys is both appropriate and arbitrary.  Appropriate in that Animal Collective has been at the vanguard of cutting-edge new music since at least 2001, and Panda Bear's contributions and solo efforts have had a reassuring, humanizing effect on AC's sometimes challenging output. 

Recorded in Panda's adopted home of Portugal, Buoys features Chilean DJ/vocalist Lizz and Portuguese musician Dino D’Santiago.

Buoy's opening cut Dolphins drops the listener in a warm and gentle sea of just slightly psychedelic riffs, as Panda's soothing voice croons along over his somewhat tropical-sounding guitar. Having earned the listener's trust with the first cut, the rest of the album leads the listener through various other sonic landscapes, all full of wonder and curiosity, but also gentle and reassuring.  It's all sugar-coated ear candy, without being too sweet or popish - think Brian Wilson on a really good day. 

We last saw Panda Bear with Animal Collective bandmate Avey Tare performing their seminal LP Sung Tongs at Atlanta's Symphony Hall last July.  Earlier last year, we saw Panda perform solo at Variety Playhouse, with AC's Geologist opening.  We've seen Panda both solo and with Animal Collective plenty of times before that and enjoyed every show, and we're disappointed to see that the tour dates announced so far for Buoys bring him nowhere near the American South.  After kicking off the tour at D.C.'s 9:30 Club, the tour goes to the Paradise in Boston, which, fun fact, is right across the street from an apartment we lived in during college back in the 70s, and where we saw the British band Dire Straits make their first American appearance.  We still have a promotional button from that show to prove it.  We're hoping more Panda Bear tour dates are announced in the future and that he eventually plays Atlanta again. 

Anyway, Buoys drops February 8.  Meanwhile, if you haven't found a leaked copy yet, there's the vid for Dolphin, above, and the adventures of Dean Blunt (Hype Williams) in Token, below.