Monday 7 April 2008

Q) IS THE PANDA BEAR ALBUM ALL THAT?

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Nigerian-born Newcastle United striker Obafemi Martins says:


'It's ok, though the kind of lavish praise heaped on Person Pitch by the indie fraternity baffles me slightly. I mean, Pitchfork naming it album of 2007? If this womby esoterica is supposed to define the epoch then I say we should be a little bit worried. The album doesn't get off to an great start: 'Comfy in Nautica' is just so many arch-Beach Boyisms buried under an Everest of water-logged reverb, and this formula pretty much sticks for the remainder of the record. Things do start to brighten-up after obscurely-titled third track 'Bros', which sees the unremitting drum-patterns finally beginning to click with the strung-out melancholia of Noah Lennox's vocals. Album closer 'Ponytail' benefits from a melodic directness not in evidence elsewhere, but it's difficult to banish the impression finally that this is an egocentric, if artfully-wrought side-project'.

'To be fair, I'm not dismissing it out of hand. Actually, I think it could be a grower as they say'.

Obafemi's name translates literally to 'the king loves me' in his native Yoruba language.

2 comments:

Alex Niven said...

I've just realised that this article might be erroneously interpreted as a bigoted reference to Oba's appearance in a black and white Toon shirt, which would be a travesty, and not at all in-keeping with my intentions. Not that he looks like a panda in the slightest. Oh dear.

Anonymous said...

I wouldn't worry too much about that. Everyone knows that Obafemi's much older than he lets on, so he's probably just more into the original Beach Boys than the 2007 version :)

FYI, we wrote a post on Bros on our blog today - here it is.