New album: Panda Bear Meets The Grim Reaper
Artist: Panda Bear
Label: Domino
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
Best known as a member of Animal Collective, Panda Bear (real name Noah Lennox) has spent the last seven years farming a respected solo career.
Much like the output of his main band, Panda Bear’s solo work may be lush and pastoral one day and everything but the kitchen sink the next. This new collection taps into the same type of dreamy pop that made Animal Collective’s “Merriweather Post Pavillion” a critical and commercial favorite not so long ago.
In fact, “Panda Bear Meets The Grim Reaper” probably should have been the follow-up to “Merriweather Post Pavillion.” Be it the distorted organ grind of “Sequential Circuits” or the dog-sampling “Mr. Noah,” Lennox is able to make somewhat radical pop music that is accessible. The quirky “Crosswords” could be sneaked into a night club’s playlist and not one eyebrow would be raised.
Animal Collective may be seen as no more than hipster bait to some, but there’s no denying the sumptuous melodicism of “Panda Bear Meets The Grim Reaper.” Anyone interested in dense, textured pop music should jump all over this one.
Classic album: The Georgia Peach
Artist: Little Richard
Label: Specialty Records
Rating: 5 stars out of 5
Little Richard was one of the original wild men of rock and roll. Aside from Jerry Lee Lewis, there was no other performer in the 1950s who could match his fiery musicianship, both on stage and in the studio.
The album format didn’t become an art form until the 1960s, so when Little Richard broke in 1955 with “Tutti Frutti,” the emphasis was on creating hit singles for the radio. Since many artists during the period ended up recording for different labels, and their contracts seemingly were written on Etch-A-Sketches, compilations that pull in all of their greatest works are sometimes hard to come by. Thankfully, the folks at Specialty Records have pulled together Little Richard’s 25 most essential tracks on this spectacular album.
Listening to the blistering takes of “Keep a Knockin’ ” and “Long Tall Sally” makes it easy to understand why everybody — from James Brown to Lemmy of Motorhead — cites Little Richard as an influence.
Richard’s primal, gospel-inflected vocals and pile-driving rhythms caused riots upon their initial release. Even in 2011, lesser hits such as “Miss Ann” and “All around the World” sound as if they’re likely to jump out of the speakers and punch somebody.
At the height of his popularity in 1957, Little Richard walked away from rock and roll to focus on a life in the ministry. Thankfully he later determined that rock and roll and walking with God were not mutually exclusive activities, and he continues to perform to this day. Most people today recognize him as the crazy man in the Geico commercials, but hopefully a percentage of them did a little research and discovered his music.
Little Richard is not the type of artist that should be lumped in with the “Golden Oldies” crowd. This music was not only influential, but it holds up as well as any painting by Van Gogh or film by Fellini. If you’re not a moron, you’ll want this in your collection.
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Jon Dawson’s album reviews appear every Thursday in The Free Press. Contact Jon at 252-559-1092 or jon.dawson@kinston.com. Check out Jon’s blog at jdawson.encblogs.com and his website at jondawson.com.