Panda Bear: Tomboy

Noah Lennox, better known by his stage name, Panda Bear, has stuck to his guns on his new single, Tomboy, straying not far from the droney, stirring vocals his listeners have previously become familiar with in Person Pitch, such as tracks like "Bros," "Good Girl," and "Take Pills." Tomboy uses a repetitive guitar sample to back up Lennox’s reverberating voice, which plays with the listener in a fun way, but only briefly and with little depth. Similiarly to "Comfy in Nautica," what Tomboy fails to do is provide a contrast from the beginning of the track, to the middle, and on to the end. The same guitar sample and customary synth beat repeat and loop, which does create a somewhat therapeutic characteristic to the track. Adding to this, too, is the collection of (repeating) lyrics such as, “What’s my life like?” and “No matter what it takes.” Lyrics that have a self-studying quality to them are no stranger to this track, which go hand in hand with the almost remedial feeling it has.

When it’s all said and done though, Tomboy provides the listener with very little contrast in feeling and sound throughout it’s entire four minutes and nineteen seconds. Unlike Person Pitch’s Good Girl, which gallops, trots, climbs, and descends throughout almost thirteen minutes of different sounds and feelings. Good Girl completely contrasts it’s opening two minutes of overbearing synth hits at ten mintues, when the listener is hearing Lennox’s soft voice singing words like “I want you to know, sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me.” A distinction that will make the listener want to play the track again, or force the listener to play it more than once to even realize that it’s there.

More of this contrast and lengthiness would have been pleasurable with Tomboy, but Lennox’s freightliner melodies and vocal ideas are of their own. Which, as unfortunate as it is to say, makes listening to this track once or twice sufficient. It’s obvious repetitiveness is never a quality, nor is an overbearing attempt at being original one either, so it was pleasing to hear Lennox keep that middle ground and give his listeners what they were hungry for. With Tomboy, don’t expect any curveballs

You can find the track on stereogum here