Aphera Music

With ODDSAC, Fall Be Kind EP, and Merriweather Post Pavilion all appearing within a year of each other, Animal Collective’s presentation of these three releases almost seems swansong-like, especially amidst rumors of the band’s breaking up, which is not out of the question when considering at least the certainty of their indefinite hiatus; Noah Lennox himself confirmed this hiatus in an interview with BBC this spring.

Panda Bear's Tomboy

That is to say, “Tomboy”, Panda Bear’s first single from his forthcoming LP, Tomboy, which is to be released later this year, is not sonically dissimilar to anything you’d have heard on MPP or Fall Be Kind except that it lacks the puerile and untamed energy that we’ve become accustomed to with Animal Collective. Certainly “Tomboy” sounds like Panda Bear and from the very start the song is acousmatic ear candy but the song takes a dirtier, darker approach and by its second half has already become monotonous. However, it is the aforementioned, attractively curious sound-set that Lennox works with in this song that makes up for its sluggish appearance and gives way for several enjoyable close listens.

Tomboy approaches quickly, trailing behind some very excellent AC material. Now compare this to 2006 when Thom Yorke released The Eraser; unlike Animal Collective, he hadn’t just put out a triad of incredible musical releases and we were in fact in the midst of a four year Radiohead drought and at that point any Yorke-related material felt refreshing and perhaps even deserved. Perhaps it isn’t fair to weigh “Tomboy” against previous AC opuses but a direct comparison is almost inevitable this close to the fact.

Click here to listen to the track via the playlist.

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