Sinister Grift (Vinyl LP)

Having worked with everyone from Paramore to Sonic Boom in recent years, celebrated Animal Collective member Panda Bear is back with his first solo record in five years, Sinister Grift. Collaborations abound, with the likes of Cindy Lee and Spirit of the Beehive’s Rivka Ravede, as well as each of his Animal Collective bandmates, and while you'll always be able to pick that unmistakeable voice out of a line-up, there are sublime new sounds aplenty here. - Flying Out

Panda Bear, the solo project of Animal Collective’s Noah Lennox, announces his new full-length Sinister Grift, due out February 28th 2025 via Domino. Lennox recorded the album at his Estudio Campo in Lisbon, Portugal and co-produced it with his Animal Collective bandmate Josh Dibb. Today he shares the album’s first single Defense, which features Cindy Lee, the persona of Canadian musician Patrick Flegel, on guitar.

Two decades since debuting as the masked-and-nicknamed drummer and vocalist of Animal Collective, Noah Lennox has led so many creative lives, navigated so many different styles, and been part of so many beloved recordings, that it can be easy to overlook just how consistent his creative vision has remained. From landmark solo albums like 2007’s Person Pitch and 2015’s Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper, to breakthroughs with Animal Collective like 2004’s Sung Tongs and 2009’s Merriweather Post Pavilion, to his boundary-pushing collaborations with Daft Punk, Solange, Dean Blunt, Paramore and Jamie xx, all of his work followed an instantly identifiable emotional throughline while influencing multiple generations and genres of artists.

On Sinister Grift, Lennox’s first solo album in five years, he has returned with another statement that feels equally cumulative and unprecedented in his catalog. While his solo records have ranged from starkly intimate expressions of grief to colourful, electronic opuses, his music has never before sounded so warm and immediate. Working in his Lisbon, Portugal home studio with Animal Collective bandmate Josh “Deakin” Dibb, Lennox transforms Panda Bear into something resembling an old-school rock ensemble, playing nearly all the instruments himself and inviting kindred spirits into the process such as Cindy Lee, Spirit of the Beehive’s Rivka Ravede, and—for the first time on a Panda Bear solo album—each of his Animal Collective bandmates.

Tracklist:

1. Praise
2. Anywhere But Here
3. 50mg
4. Ends Meet
5. Just As Well
6. Ferry Lady
7. Venom’s In
8. Left in the Cold
9. Elegy for Noah Lou
10. Defense