-
10.0
72352
10.0 |
The Arts Desk
Subscription required
Read Review
-
9.0
72105
9.0 |
Beardfood
Brilliantly paced, the ingenious Noah Lennox (who needs Brian Wilson?) manages to create his greatest record
Read Review
-
9.0
72143
9.0 |
Loud And Quiet
The ‘headphone album’ tag always seems a bit reductive to me, but this collection simply must be enjoyed in the highest of fidelity
Read Review
-
9.0
72146
9.0 |
Exclaim
Both a return to the Panda Bear sound of old and a departure into uncharted sonic territories
Read Review
-
9.0
72180
9.0 |
All Music
Striking a balance between hypnotic pop and cloudy soul-searching, the album delivers all the ends of the spectrum Lennox has spent years perfecting
Read Review
-
9.0
72174
9.0 |
The Digital Fix
Put simply, this is the best Panda Bear record. It's smart, weird fun and for once it's your gut telling you this rather than your brain
Read Review
-
8.7
72140
8.7 |
Pitchfork
Taken as a whole, Grim Reaper feels like a gradual process of Lennox trying to tune out the extraneous noise of modern life and focus on what’s truly important to him
Read Review
-
8.5
72172
8.5 |
Under The Radar
While it's nice to have the controlled chaos of an Animal Collective album from time to time, it's nice to get some simply moving music as well
Read Review
-
8.5
72196
8.5 |
Paste Magazine
To say Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper is a textural album is probably stating the obvious, but it very much is, in a way where the individual tracks feel simultaneously adventurous and tamed
Read Review
-
8.5
72094
8.5 |
The 405
Not the private masterpiece that Person Pitch turned out to be, but it might be the final triumphant salute to an unforgettable chapter in Lennox's career
Read Review
-
8.3
72176
8.3 |
Pretty Much Amazing
Grim Reaper is Panda Bear’s most aggressively electronic work to date, full of clattering rhythms and corroded keyboards, no computer-derived sound or structure permitted to masquerade as anything other than what it is
Read Review
-
8.0
72171
8.0 |
Spin
Grim Reaper is an unedited adventure of blossoming soundscapes, vision-blurring, dissonant melodies, and cheerful robot dance numbers
Read Review
-
8.0
72271
8.0 |
musicOMH
Blissful electronica for both the heart and the brain
Read Review
-
8.0
72173
8.0 |
The List
A life-affirming encounter with an imaginative and engaged musician
Read Review
-
8.0
72166
8.0 |
PopMatters
The album is bound to become his most divisive record to date, but it’s good to hear that an artist with the track record and long-standing popularity of Panda Bear is still willing to take chances and put the effort in to make them work
Read Review
-
8.0
72100
8.0 |
Clash
One of the songwriter’s most overtly gorgeous works, it finds Panda Bear easing into new ground while maintaining his near effortless melodic touch
Read Review
-
8.0
72137
8.0 |
The Observer
He might be dicing with death, but Lennox, more crisply produced than before, is in shiny rude health
Read Review
-
8.0
72113
8.0 |
The Music
Though the album could benefit from some of Tomboy’s tightness, it’s doubtful many listeners will have a problem with the more psych-influenced grooves and manipulations
Read Review
-
8.0
72120
8.0 |
Evening Standard
The sound has more in common with the pretty, cyclical synthscapes of Animal Collective’s breakthrough album, Merriweather Post Pavilion, than its awkward, hyperactive followup, Centipede Hz
Read Review
-
8.0
72121
8.0 |
DIY
Dense, slippery, wily, and flung together effortlessly like a meticulously rehearsed sleight of hand. Boy, is it worth the legwork
Read Review
-
8.0
72108
8.0 |
NOW
On first listen, the album as a whole seems repetitious - there aren't any 12-minute odysseys like on breakout album Person Pitch - but its diversity reveals itself with multiple listens
Read Review
-
8.0
72109
8.0 |
The Guardian
There’s nothing radically new here, which means it doesn’t have the same jolting appeal as Person Pitch. But rather than repeat himself, Lennox has successfully honed his sound
Read Review
-
8.0
72111
8.0 |
The Line Of Best Fit
Playful yet profound, baffling but very beautiful, sticking with Panda Bear Meets The Grim Reaper until it reveals its full dizzying array of riches most certainly is
Read Review
-
8.0
72069
8.0 |
Mojo
This is a more colourful record than its predecessor, but it's troubled too. Print edition only
-
8.0
72070
8.0 |
Q
At times it's a touch muted, a little greyed-out, but if this is Lennox staring down mortality, he comes out swinging. Print edition only
-
8.0
72079
8.0 |
The Irish Times
Channels the highlights from his previous two albums, Person Pitch and Tomboy, into a digestible whole
Read Review
-
8.0
72090
8.0 |
Uncut
From folk via drugs and jazz to somewhere considerably weirder
Read Review
-
8.0
72092
8.0 |
The Skinny
Teeming more than ever with off-piste diversions and excursions, contrary sampling and a firm 90s hip-hop pulse
Read Review
-
8.0
72719
8.0 |
Fact
A mature album of peace and reckoning, one that weaves ghostly textures, plumbs watery depths, but ultimately happens on something comforting and tranquil
Read Review
-
7.5
72068
7.5 |
Consequence Of Sound
Rides high on his proven strengths, but doesn’t exactly explore new territory
Read Review
-
7.5
72145
7.5 |
Earbuddy
The most pop-laden release of Panda Bear’s discography to date
Read Review
-
7.0
72112
7.0 |
Drowned In Sound
Musically, PBVSGR stands out from Lennox’s previous four releases, not necessarily in its darkness, but rather in the hard edge that can be found throughout
Read Review
-
7.0
72139
7.0 |
No Ripcord
Can be a particularly infuriating listen since it wanders between moments of greatness and utter tedium
Read Review
-
7.0
72103
7.0 |
Slant Magazine
After the gloomy, monochromatic Tomboy, the catchy, blissed-out buoyancy of Grim Reaper is rather refreshing, showing Lennox staking out a middle ground between quirky abstraction and pop accessibility
Read Review
-
6.7
72169
6.7 |
A.V. Club
Doesn’t push boundaries so much as it delineates the contours of Lennox’s comfort zone
Read Review
-
6.0
72205
6.0 |
Tiny Mix Tapes
If it’s possible to peel back the layers of hype and history, you will likely hear in Panda Bear Meets The Grim Reaper an unsurprisingly good Panda Bear album
Read Review
-
6.0
72231
6.0 |
State
An album to be listened to from start to finish rather than cherry picking your way through; otherwise the listener may deprive themselves of the beauty of Lennox’s light and shade moments
Read Review
-
4.0
72134
4.0 |
The FT
The songs fail to do anything interesting with their artfully layered sounds
Read Review
-