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August 24, 2006
Her skin up close was pixelated
This is the song from Portugal
Something sweeter, prettier, and shinier than anything you've ever known. A 25 ft. Christmas tree made out of caramel, spun sugar, and chocolate, illuminated in the brightest light. A sunlit hill in California in October, breezeblown and unspoiled, the blue line of the ocean just within view. A handful of the finest-grained silt from a nearby river, dotted here and there by tiny, tiny (barely discernible) flecks of gold. A walk down a wooded path that turns, suddenly and improbably, into a wild cartoon adventure, complete with talking animals and incandescent hand-painted scenery.
'Bros' is a continuation, a pursuit of the sounds of 'Search for Delicious', 'What I Do' (from Animal Collective's BBC session last year), and 'Comfy in Nautica'. Panda Bear takes this song into territory that, at first listen, sounds like it borders on excess (it's almost too thickly pretty to finish in one sitting). But one time through and you can start to parse the song: the seemingly nondiegetic owl that hoots three times at the start, that hiss of steam right after Noah sings his first line, small and tender screams, the crying/laughing man sandwiched in the middle. And those are just the edges of the song- the main part of the track seems to be an extremely refined and layered sample of sleigh bells, tambourine, and guitar (there's a simple, bright-toned riff that guides the verses), all of which kicks up a few more degrees of thickness for the choruses. Noah's vocals are mixed pretty squarely in the middle of things, so it's hard to tell exactly what's going on lyrically in 'Bros'. The clearest snippets come in the verses, when Noah sings, "I'm not trying to forget you/I just like to be alone (on my own)" (the 'alone' and 'on my own' seem to alternate), which makes it sound like the song is meant as a reassurance for a close friend, or significant other (it's definitely easy to misinterpret someone else's general desire for solitude as something specifically negative and more sort of ad hominem). Along the same lines as 'Comfy In Nautica', with its main message of "try to remember always to have a good time", 'Bros' is a beautifully crafted positive memento, designed to deliver a kind of emotional pause.
This version of 'Bros' is from the Fat Cat 2006 Sampler (so I'm not sure what exactly makes this an 'edit', maybe the album version's longer). According to the guys in Animal Collective, "Bros" will be released on Fat Cat towards the end of this year, and then in early 2007, the entire collection of Panda Bear's new songs will be put out (in some manner). For the time being, you can buy "I'm Not/Comfy in Nautica" here.
Posted by Kevin at August 24, 2006 04:11 PM
Comments
Yeah, the song is definitely breathtaking. Panda Bear seems to have a strong grasp on what it takes to make a staggeringly catchy pop melody. (And thanks for the kind words re: the writing, Adele.)
Posted by: Kevin at August 25, 2006 11:40 AM