Albums to watch

Sinister Grift

Panda Bear

Sinister Grift

Seventh solo album from Animal Collective founding member Noah Lennox

ADM rating[?]

7.3

Label
Domino
UK Release date
28/02/2025
US Release date
28/02/2025
  1. 8.5 |   Pitchfork

    Assisted by his Animal Collective bandmates, Noah Lennox’s latest solo LP is disarmingly laid-back. It might be his most straightforwardly beautiful record—and also his most emotionally complex
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  2. 8.0 |   The Guardian

    Noah Lennox’s powerful and adventurous album has plenty of playlistable psych-pop, but then turns introspective: it’s a striking emotional arc
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  3. 8.0 |   Far Out

    It’s an album of paradoxes and juxtapositions that somehow manages to introduce itself to you with crystal clarity
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  4. 8.0 |   The Line Of Best Fit

    In an era where we’re steadily ceding control to the autonomy of the artist, Sinister Grift is a much-needed reminder of the kind of work that only humans can create
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  5. 8.0 |   musicOMH

    As the title implies, Noah Lennox’s latest exploration has a shadowy underbelly, a curious tension at its heart that makes it equal parts happy and sad
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  6. 8.0 |   Mojo

    Perfectly sequenced, Sinister Grift's dubious uplift gradually falls away to reveal an exquisite melancholy introspection, the sound of optimism weighted by mooring hooks of sadness. Print edition only

  7. 8.0 |   The Skinny

    On his seventh album as Panda Bear, Noah Lennox delivers ten meticulously crafted songs, exploring a new thematic territory that's bittersweet but buoyant
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  8. 8.0 |   Under The Radar

    There’s very little sinister about Sinister Grift, at least, not in the album’s warm and glimmering instrumentation. And that unsteady ground — of appearances versus what’s under the hood — only adds to the mystique and enjoyment of Panda Bear’s music
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  9. 8.0 |   DIY

    Presenting with a breezy, lived-in warmth
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  10. 7.9 |   Paste Magazine

    Much like how Van Dyke Parks’ Song Cycle inserted bluegrass, incongruous orchestras and show-tune melodrama into conversations of out-of-fashion contemporary sensations, Animal Collective's Noah Lennox distorts the context of these 10 rock songs with elements of reggae, dub, hauntology, drone, cowboy chords, yesteryear pop centrifuge and dampened, diet ska
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  11. 7.0 |   Uncut

    They're lean and immediate in nature, with melodic ease that belies lyrics awash with loss, uncertainty, regret, overwhelm and defeat, feelings that sit on the surface, undisguised. Print edition only

  12. 6.8 |   Northern Transmissions

    While Sinister Grift has its flaws, Lennox strives to create a world sonically with the dreamy guitars and punchy drums
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  13. 6.0 |   Slant Magazine

    Lennox’s latest is his attempt at crafting something in the key of Jimmy Buffet
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  14. 6.0 |   Spectrum Culture

    Sinister Grift is not an album that’s going to change anyone’s mind about Noah Lennox’s work. It’s too agreeable to inspire hatred, but there isn’t enough here for anyone to fall in love with either.
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  15. 4.0 |   The Arts Desk

    Like a collection of demo tracks and out-takes from a Smiley Smile-era Beach Boys
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