Panda Bear & Sonic Boom: Reset Album Review

I recall listening to an episode of the hit internet radio show Time Crisis, hosted by Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig and American painter and musician Jake Longstreth, where the pair interviewed guitarist Johnny Marr of The Smiths fame. When asked about the influences behind writing some of the most iconic guitar riffs of all time, Marr’s answer was surprisingly blunt: he had none. While likely a bit dishonest, the sentiment was still clear – to be cool was to reject all that came before, to build up your own original sound. The Smiths and other counter culture powered bands of the 80s and 90s lived by this. The music of past generations inherited the qualities that the youth were rebelling against, so for Marr to embody any influences from the past would be alternative sacrilege.

Music often feels like it moves in that linear fashion, tracing back through history and seeing trends fade in and out – a constant pursuit of stardom or cool through the shiniest new chord progression. What happens, though, when we run out of new ideas, new music? Panda Bear (Noah Lennox) and Sonic Boom (Peter Kember) solve that crisis by journeying back into the past, embracing the “uncool” that culture left behind to pull together the lively Reset, released this past Friday.

Classic Panda Bear comes through, his mesmerizing mantras back from the best of his earlier Person Pitch and his seminal Animal Collective masterpiece Merriweather Post Pavilion. These new songs could conquer the radio in 2022 and 1962, eighty years of musical history blending together to pay cheerful respects to our old favorites. When I listened I could catch The Beach Boys, Daft Punk, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, and Grizzly Bear, but you’ll likely pick up on your own favorites with your first listen, and find more as you let yourself float away through the fuzzy sounds of the past and future.

Since Reset has only been out over the weekend, my full thoughts on this sonic ode to the past aren’t fully developed, so I don’t have much more to say (insert Jay-Z clip saying that you can’t listen to and rate an album in a day). My initial thoughts: Reset is really good, and not just because Panda Bear is a distant cousin of mine (allegedly). It’s currently overcast in the mid-Atlantic where I write from, but spinning this record will brighten your day, the same way it feels to rediscover an old favorite, reconnecting with an old friend.