Since the release of 2009’s Merriweather Post Pavillion, recent Animal Collective endeavors have seemed rather lost and unfocused. Their 2011 release Centipede Hz was somewhat of a return to form, with it being more chaotic and sporadic, but by the end, the album came off as muddy and the songwriting didn’t add up to much. Now, Noah Lennox aka Panda Bear is back with Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper, but given Animal Collective’s recent track record, is it a journey worth taking?

The album trickles in with “Sequential Circuits,” which gives one the impression of fog settling on a dark moonlit forr
est. Through this settling fog we see the Grim Reaper appear offering himself up as a guide, and echoing off the trees we hear Noah Lennox’s Brian Wilson-esque vocals encouraging us by saying, “Dread follows that lead, follow the lead.” We follow the Grim Reaper and the next thing we know we have had our mind rattled with the banger “Mr. Noah.” The song has an undeniable amount of energy and contagious hooks. Noah Lennox paints pictures of dogs turning on dogs and men turning on men; he reminds us that none of us are safe from death. After emerging from these ghastly images we encounter our first major moment of realization that the album has to offer in the form of “Crosswords.” It is in these moments of realization that the album shines. Lennox’s lyrics in “Crosswords” and throughout the album are cryptic but they also offer a
lot of room for the listener to relate to and identify with. In “Crosswords,” he is basically echoing something that mostly everyone has heard at one point in their life: “You’ve got it so good.” We often focus on what we don’t have instead of what we have, this idea seems to come through in spades as the album progresses.

“Butcher Baker Candlestick Maker” and “Boys Latin” are both songs that seem to pride themselves on their grooves, hooks, and their ability to apply different layers of sound subtly, adding more and more texture as the song progresses. Sonically these songs are the equivalent of listening to a lava lamp that is bubbling and spitting with color. The last lyrics of the song “Boys Latin” which go, “Dark Cloud descended again and a shadow moves in the darkness,” imply that death has come in full force and is here to take us away.

The chaotic and mind-altering intro to “Come to Your Senses” gives one the impression of their life flashing before their eyes in the blink of a second through a dial-up connection. After that 18-second wall of sound has succeeded, we are treated to a Dust Brothers-esque groove and we are bombarded with the question, “Are you mad?” Like in “Crosswords,” Lennox’s lyrics here are simple but poignant. He is echoing words that sound like something a dad would say to his son and he reminds us that we don’t get another chance at this game of life by saying, “Don’t make that again, this is the last time”.

Then the horn blasts and the clouds open up, and we ascend to heaven in the form of “Tropic of Cancer.” “Tropic of Cancer” is Noah Lennox’s “Motion Picture Soundtrack” (Radiohead) 
or “‘Til I Die” (The Beach Boys). It is a hauntingly elegant track that represents the emotional breaking point of the album. This has to be one of these best tracks to ever come out of any Animal Collective project.

“Selfish Gene” is another standout moment from the album. Lennox finds himself admitting that he is not a perfect person and that he will undoubtedly make mistakes or “trip up again.” Once we acknowledge these ideas that the album presents, such as death is part of life that stimulates growth, there is no going back, live for tomorrow instead of yesterday, and value what you have instead of what you don’t, we may feel a little bit of weight lifted off our shoulder. This weight lifting or moment of release is captured ever so perfectly by the closer “Acid Wash” in which we the listeners find ourselves in a joyous victory over the paralyzing nature of death that the Grim Reaper represents.

Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper doesn’t really seem to mark the end of an era like the title may seem to imply, but instead seems to represent a step in the right direction. Sonically this marks the most cohesive, consistent, and fully realized Animal Collective output since Merriweather Post Pavilion and my favorite since Strawberry Jam. The album is polluted with hypnotic hooks and grooves that will be kicking around the back of your mind for days. Lyrically and conceptually the album often comes off as poignant, poetic, and quite profound if heard in the right context. This is an album spitting with so much cosmic color that it demands you to listen to it all the way through multiple times in order to fully appreciate it.