Person Pitch

Person Pitch
Studio album by Panda Bear
Released March 20, 2007 (2007-03-20)
Recorded Lisbon, Portugal
Genre
Length 45:36
Label Paw Tracks
Producer Panda Bear
Panda Bear chronology
Young Prayer
(2004)Young Prayer2004		 Person Pitch
(2007)		 Tomboy
(2011)Tomboy2011
Singles from Person Pitch
  1. "I'm Not/Comfy in Nautica"
    Released: September 22, 2005
  2. "Bros"
    Released: September 4, 2006
  3. "Carrots"
    Released: January 23, 2007
  4. "Take Pills"
    Released: June 19, 2007

Person Pitch is the third solo album released by American recording artist Panda Bear (Noah Lennox), released on March 20, 2007. Largely composed using a pair of Roland SP-303 samplers, Person Pitch was a stylistic leap from Lennox's previous album, the primarily acoustic Young Prayer (2004). He described the album as "kind of sugary ... super dubby and old sounding" songs inspired by his recent marriage and fatherhood.

The album was met with universal critical acclaim,[6] and later ranked among various "top 10 albums of the 2000s" lists. It is noted for influencing a wide range of subsequent indie music,[7] inspiring the chillwave genre in addition to numerous soundalike acts.[8] Five of the album's seven tracks were issued as A-sided singles before the album's release: "I'm Not", "Comfy in Nautica", "Bros", "Carrots", and "Take Pills".

Background

Person Pitch exhibits a much brighter sound from Lennox's previous album, Young Prayer, with Lennox himself describing the songs in advance as "super dubby and old sounding, like Motown or Buddy Holly just a little bit."[9] Dusted Magazine attributed this to his 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.[10]
Lennox performing with Animal Collective in 2007

Initially, Lennox wanted to name it Perfect Pitch before settling on Person Pitch – "pitch being sound and person being a person with person pitch being a sound of a person."[11] Mixing for the album was handled by Rusty Santos.

Artwork and release

The artwork for Person Pitch and all of the related singles were done by Agnes Montgomery. According to Lennox, "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." Included in the artwork was a long list of artists who Lennox credited with influencing him. About the decision to put this list in the booklet and the making of the artwork, Lennox said "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 ... [specific influences] 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."[10]

Five of the seven tracks on the album were released prior to the album, some of them with different mixing and/or lengths.

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.

As of 2011, sales in the United States have exceeded 74,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. [12]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic87/100[6]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[13]
The A.V. ClubA−[14]
Entertainment WeeklyA−[15]
The Guardian[16]
The Observer[17]
Pitchfork9.4/10[18]
Q[19]
Rolling Stone[20]
Slant Magazine[21]
Spin[22]

Person Pitch was met with almost unanimously positive reviews from music critics. On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 87, indicating "universal acclaim".[6] Kevin O'Donnell of Rolling Stone felt that the album "proves he's a first-rate solo artist," and described the album as a marvelous, hazy trip full of Beach Boys-inspired psychedelia."[20] Leah Greenblatt of Entertainment Weekly also noted influences from the "sunny California sound of the Beach Boys/Mamas and the Papas era" and described the album as a "lovely, trippy kaleidoscope of sound."[15] Mark Richardson of Pitchfork felt that Noah Lennox's use of pop melodies gives Person Pitch "an appeal that extends beyond just Animal Collective fans" but that the incorporation of sampled loops and instruments in the production gives the album's songs an "unusual twist".[18] Slant Magazine's Jonathan Keefe praised Person Pitch as "a striking, ambitious take on pop music", noting the influence of dance and electronic music techniques.[21]

Drowned in Sound writer Richard MacFarlane complimented Lennox's "masterful" production on Person Pitch.[23] Writing in The Observer, Simon Reynolds describe the album's sound as "tribal, ecstatic yet eerie, brimming with child-like wonder," and felt that Lennox successfully "pulls off the trick of being simultaneously poppy and abstract".[17] Phillip Buchan of PopMatters called the album the "most sonically satisfying statement to emerge yet from the Collective", though he was less complimentary towards its lyrics, which he felt lacked a "representational capacity" to "show us anything outside our selves."[24] Retrospectively, Fred Thomas of AllMusic credits Person Pitch as the album where "the wildly different places Lennox would take his experiments truly found a voice of their own", standing as "a perfectly executed statement for Lennox, and in at least some circles of indie rock, a musical revelation."[13]

As of 2017, review aggregate website Acclamed Music has Person Pitch listed as the 7th best album of 2007, as well as the 349th best album of all time.[25] The album was named the top album of 2007 by publications such as Pitchfork Media and Tiny Mix Tapes.[26][27] The album also placed at number 13 on The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop year-end critics' poll.[28] It also garnered praise and recognition from musicians such as Bradford Cox, The Tough Alliance, Diplo, St. Vincent, Black Dice, Christopher Bear of Grizzly Bear, Vampire Weekend, Yeasayer and Dan Snaith, all of whom ranked Person Pitch as one of the best albums of 2007 in a Pitchfork Media year-end survey.[29] Pitchfork would later name Person Pitch the ninth best album of the decade.[30] Tiny Mix Tapes named the album their 8th favorite of the decade, and wrote that "this was where dub, calypso, afrobeat, indie, noise, drone, and IDM not only intersected, but got digested by more than just a few thousand in the underground."[31]

Accolades

Track listing

All tracks written by Noah Lennox.

No.TitleLength
1."Comfy in Nautica"4:04
2."Take Pills"5:23
3."Bros"12:30
4."I'm Not"3:59
5."Good Girl/Carrots"12:42
6."Search for Delicious"4:53
7."Ponytail"2:05
Total length:45:36

Vinyl

Influences

The following artists are listed in the liner notes as influences for Person Pitch.[44]

References

  1. ↑ Paper Mag
  2. ↑ Rolling Stone
  3. ↑ Dot Music
  4. ↑ Berman, Stuart. "Panda Bear - Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper Review". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 11 July 2017.
  5. ↑ Reynolds, Simon (April 2011). "Review: Panda Bear - Tomboy". The Wire.
  6. 1 2 3 "Reviews for Person Pitch by Panda Bear". Metacritic. Retrieved August 17, 2015.
  7. ↑ AllMusic
  8. ↑ Carew, Anthony (May 20, 2011). "Perfecting the pitch". The Sydney Morning Herald.
  9. ↑ Interview Archived March 9, 2009, at the Wayback Machine., The Milk Factory, April 2005
  10. 1 2 Hatch-Miller, R. "Dusted Feature: Panda Bear," Dusted Magazine.
  11. ↑ Interview, Má Fama radio, January 8, 2007
  12. ↑ http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/472299/panda-bear-goes-underground-with-more-serious-tomboy
  13. 1 2 Thomas, Fred. "Person Pitch – Panda Bear". AllMusic. Retrieved August 17, 2015.
  14. ↑ Murray, Noel (May 8, 2007). "Music in Brief". The A.V. Club. Archived from the original on October 12, 2007. Retrieved August 17, 2015.
  15. 1 2 Greenblatt, Leah (April 6, 2007). "Person Pitch". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved August 17, 2015.
  16. ↑ Rogers, Jude (April 6, 2007). "Panda Bear, Person Pitch". The Guardian. London. Retrieved March 5, 2012.
  17. 1 2 Reynolds, Simon (March 18, 2007). "Panda Bear, Person Pitch". The Observer. London. Retrieved March 5, 2012.
  18. 1 2 Richardson, Mark (March 22, 2007). "Panda Bear: Person Pitch". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved March 5, 2012.
  19. ↑ "Panda Bear: Person Pitch". Q (250): 127. May 2007.
  20. 1 2 O'Donnell, Kevin (April 17, 2007). "Panda Bear: Person Pitch". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on October 13, 2007. Retrieved August 17, 2015.
  21. 1 2 Keefe, Jonathan (December 14, 2007). "Panda Bear: Person Pitch". Slant Magazine. Retrieved May 31, 2016.
  22. ↑ Zimmerman, Shannon (April 2007). "Panda Bear: Person Pitch". Spin. 23 (4): 93. Retrieved August 17, 2015.
  23. ↑ MacFarlane, Richard (December 23, 2007). "Album Review: Panda Bear – Person Pitch". Drowned in Sound. Retrieved August 17, 2015.
  24. ↑ Buchan, Phillip (March 25, 2007). "Panda Bear: Person Pitch". PopMatters. Retrieved January 16, 2016.
  25. ↑ "Acclaimed Music". www.acclaimedmusic.net. Retrieved 2017-02-03.
  26. 1 2 "Staff Lists: Top 50 Albums of 2007". Pitchfork Media. December 18, 2007. Retrieved March 5, 2012.
  27. ↑ "Tiny Mix Tapes Favorite Albums of 2007". Tiny Mix Tapes. Archived from the original on December 30, 2007. Retrieved January 4, 2008.
  28. ↑ "The 2007 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll". The Village Voice. February 6, 2007. Retrieved January 16, 2016.
  29. ↑ "Guest Lists: Best of 2007". Pitchfork Media. December 14, 2007. Retrieved March 5, 2012.
  30. 1 2 "Staff Lists: The Top 200 Albums of the 2000s: 20–1". Pitchfork Media. October 2, 2009. Retrieved March 5, 2012.
  31. ↑ Gumshoe. "Favorite 100 Albums of 2000-2009". Tiny Mix Tapes. Retrieved 5 February 2017.
  32. ↑ "Internet Archive Wayback Machine". Web.archive.org. 2007-12-30. Archived from the original on 2007-12-30. Retrieved 2012-03-05.
  33. ↑ "Favorite 100 Albums of 2000-2009: 20–01". Tiny Mix Tapes. January 20, 2009. Retrieved March 5, 2012.
  34. ↑ "Best Albums of 2007: #30 to #21". Obscure Sound. 2007-12-19. Retrieved 2012-10-26.
  35. ↑ "Top 20 Albums of 2007". About.com. 2007-12-25. Retrieved 2012-03-15.
  36. ↑ "RA Poll: Top 100 albums of the '00s". Residentadvisor.net. 2010-01-25. Retrieved 2012-03-05.
  37. ↑ "albums of the decade | 2000-2009". Gorilla Vs. Bear. 2009-08-14. Retrieved 2012-03-05.
  38. ↑ BN Staff. "Best Album of the '00s". Stereogum. Retrieved 23 May 2016.
  39. ↑ http://www.stylusmagazine.com/articles/pop_playground/top-50-al0. Retrieved December 19, 2011. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  40. ↑ "Staff Lists: Top 100 Tracks of 2007 | Features". Pitchfork. 2007-12-17. Retrieved 2012-03-05.
  41. ↑ "Staff Lists: The Top 500 Tracks of the 2000s: 50-21 | Features". Pitchfork. 2009-08-20. Retrieved 2012-03-05.
  42. ↑ "News". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2012-03-05.
  43. ↑ http://pitchfork.com/features/staff-lists/7686-the-top-500-tracks-of-the-2000s-200-101/7/
  44. ↑ Lennox, Noah (2007). Person Pitch (CD Liner). Panda Bear. Paw Tracks.
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