| Person Pitch | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by Panda Bear | ||||
| Released | March 20, 2007 | |||
| Genre | Dream pop Post-rock Indietronica Dub Minimal Techno |
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| Length | 45:36 | |||
| Label | Paw Tracks | |||
| Producer | Panda Bear | |||
| Panda Bear chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Person Pitch | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | [1] |
| BBC Collective | [2] |
| The Guardian | [3] |
| OMM | [4] |
| Okayplayer | [5] |
| Delusions of Adequacy | [6] |
| Paste | [7] |
| Rolling Stone | [8] |
| Pitchfork Media | (9.4/10)[9] |
| Tiny Mix Tapes | [10] |
| Uncut | [11] |
| Urb | [12] |
Person Pitch is the third solo album released by Animal Collective member Noah Lennox (aka Panda Bear), released on March 20, 2007. The album was released to high critical acclaim.[13]
Tiny Mix Tapes ranked Person Pitch the best album of 2007[14] and also ranked it 8th on their 'Favorite 100 Albums of 2000-2009' list.[15] Resident Advisor named it the 84th best album of the decade.[16] Pitchfork Media named Person Pitch the top album of 2007[17] and placed it 9th on the Top 200 Albums of The Decade.[18] Additionally, the track "Bro's" was placed by Pitchfork Media at 48th in their "The Top 500 Tracks of the 2000s"[19]
Person Pitch has also gained praise and recognition by other musicians. Artists such as Atlas Sound, The Tough Alliance, Diplo, St. Vincent, Black Dice, Christopher Bear from Grizzly Bear, Vampire Weekend, Yeasayer and Dan Snaith from Caribou have all claimed Person Pitch as one of the best albums in 2007.[20]
Contents |
Five of the seven tracks on the album were released prior to the album, some of them with different mixing and/or lengths. "I'm Not" and "Comfy in Nautica" were released together as a double A-side single in 2005. "Bro's" was released as a single on Fat Cat Records in late 2006. "Good Girl / Carrots" was released in early 2007 on a split 12" with the band Excepter via Animal Collective's own label Paw Tracks (on the single, the song is called, simply, "Carrots"). "Search for Delicious" was featured in 2005 on Volume 14 of music magazine Comes With a Smile's CD compilations. Finally, "Take Pills" was released as a 7" single on June 19, 2007. Despite Lennox's initial assertion that Person Pitch would be issued only on CD, it was announced shortly after its release that it would in fact be pressed on vinyl; the double LP was released on June 19.
Initially Lennox wanted to name it Perfect Pitch, but eventually changed it to Person Pitch - "Pitch being sound and Person being a person and Person Pitch being a sound of a person."[21]
The album was recorded by Lennox and was mixed by Rusty Santos. Recorded using mostly samplers, the album is stylistically a large step away from Panda Bear's last album, Young Prayer, which was written and recorded after the death of Lennox's father. Lennox himself described the songs in advance as "super dubby and old sounding, like Motown or Buddy Holly just a little bit."[22] In fact, Person Pitch exhibits a much brighter sound, perhaps due in part to Lennox's move to Portugal. Seeing this connection and the change of atmosphere in his music, Lennox says:
| “ | A lot of the songs on Person Pitch are kind of sugary. [...] It’s really mellow and sunny here [in Portugal] and I feel like the album really sounds like that to me. Also the stuff that’s happened to me in the past two years, like getting married and having a kid and all that, has had a pretty profound impact on the kind of music I play and the kind of subjects I address. My approach to being a musician has drastically changed from having a kid and being a provider. It was kind of terrifying at first, I won’t lie to you. It’s made me feel like I don’t want to fuck up, and I want to make sure I cover all my bases. And that’s not to say that I suddenly want to make music that’s going to sell a whole lot of copies cause I don’t really think I could do that. But I want to make sure that whatever I’m doing, I’m doing it to the fullest extent that I can.[23] | ” |
The artwork for Person Pitch and all of the related singles were done by Agnes Montgomery [1]. About the decision to put this list in the booklet and the making of the artwork, Lennox said:
| “ | Initially I knew I wanted to do something that was really symmetrical. The album is kind of symmetrical in terms of how long the songs are, and I wanted the album art to reflect that. I knew I wanted to do a lot of personal thank yous and I knew I wanted to have the artwork from all the singles on there in a symmetrical fashion. So I needed another text panel, and I also thought that since I was sampling so many different people I thought it was appropriate to give thanks to other musicians. I’d never really done that before, and I also always had trouble when people were like “who are your influences, what do you feel influenced the music on this album.” I was always like, “I don’t really know.” I don’t listen to music at home a whole lot and the stuff that I do hear is usually because of the other guys in the band, or the stuff I would hear at Other [Music, a New York City record store where Noah once worked] every day. I don’t have a record player or own a whole lot of CDs or anything like that, so it was always kind of a difficult question for me to answer. So this time I was like, I’ll really try to think about what I feel led me to make this kind of music and give respect to those people.[23] | ” |
| # | Title | Samples | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Comfy in Nautica" |
|
4:04 |
| 2 | "Take Pills" |
|
5:23 |
| 3 | "Bro's" |
|
12:30 |
| 4 | "I'm Not" |
|
3:59 |
| 5 | "Good Girl/Carrots" |
|
12:42 |
| 6 | "Search for Delicious" |
|
4:53 |
| 7 | "Ponytail" | 2:05 |
1. "Comfy in Nautica" – 4:04
2. "Take Pills" – 5:23
3. "Bro's" – 12:30
4. "Good Girl/Carrots" – 12:42
5. "I'm Not" – 3:59
6. "Search for Delicious" – 4:53
7. "Ponytail" – 2:05
Person Pitch
| Publication | Accolade | Year | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tiny Mix Tapes | Favorite Albums of 2007 | 2007 | #1[24] |
| Pitchfork Media | Top 50 Albums of 2007 | 2007 | #1[17] |
| Tiny Mix Tapes | Favorite 100 Albums of 2000-2009 | 2009 | #8[15] |
| Pitchfork Media | The Top 200 Albums of the 2000s | 2008 | #9[18] |
| Obscure Sound | Best Albums of 2007 | 2007 | #24[25] |
| Resident Advisor | Top 100 Albums of the '00s | 2009 | #84[26] |
| Gorilla vs. Bear | 2000–2009 | 2009 | #1[27] |
| Stylus Magazine | Top 50 Albums of 2007 | 2007 | #3[28] |
Bro's
| Publication | Accolade | Year | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pitchfork Media | Top 100 Tracks of 2007 | 2007 | #3[29] |
| Pitchfork Media | The Top 500 Tracks of the 2000s | 2009 | #48[19] |
Comfy In Nautica
| Publication | Accolade | Year | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rolling Stone | 100 Best Songs Of 2007 | 2007 | #74[30] |
The following artists are listed in the liner notes as influences for the album.
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