Finding Duality in Life and Music: Panda Bear’s Sinister Grift

Photo Credits: Spotify

On May 16, 1966, the Beach Boys stopped the world with Pet Sounds. Across 13 tracks, the band pushed the boundaries of what pop music could be by incorporating lush production, avant-garde ideas, and complex themes. The Beach Boys, previously known for happy-go-lucky summer jams such as “Surfin’ USA” and “Fun, Fun, Fun,” were now writing lyrics about social isolation and introspection guised by their trademark harmonies. This album would go on to be one of the most critically hailed pop albums of all time and a direct inspiration for many artists to continue pushing the envelope of music. In 2025, Pet Sounds has not left the cultural zeitgeist, and musician Panda Bear captures the essence of this album on his deceivingly reflective Sinister Grift.

Noah Lennox (aka Panda Bear) is best known for his work with the experimental pop band Animal Collective. Since the 2000s, Animal Collective has created countless indie classics using daring instrumentation, vocal harmonies, and maximalist synth-driven soundscapes. In his solo work, Lennox continues this creative experimentation and uses his strong vocals to shape tracks into fluid motions, ebbing and flowing to transport the listener through a sonic journey. Sinister Grift is a perfect example of this: a musical voyage from the playful to the bleak.

Sinister Grift’s opening tracks are joyous exultations in summery instrumentation. The album opens with the song “Praise,” in which upbeat drums and guitars lay the backdrop for Lennox’s enveloping vocal performance, capturing the spirit of the Beach Boys with his harmonies. The project continues to draw from reggae and psychedelic pop in following tracks, such as “Just as Well” and “50mg.” In all, the first half of the album is a true confluence of styles that develops an easily digestible yet smartly produced pop triumph. 

Despite the energetic start, the album’s second leg is anything but poppy. This dark turn is what characterizes the namesake “sinister grift”: although listeners are initially treated to a cheerful pop album, these expectations are completely subverted as it transitions into something far darker. “Venom’s In” begins to slow things down as Lennox’s voice meanders around lackadaisical guitars and slow, enduring drum grooves. The next track, “Left in the Cold,” continues this trend, a swirling kaleidoscope of subtle guitars and synths, whose rising and falling makes it seem like the song is taking deep breaths. By “Elegy for Noah Lou,” the album’s penultimate track, Lennox has reached something wholly different from the bright, cheerful start to the tracklist that makes it easy to forget this is even the same album. Over six minutes long, this slow dirge of minimalist instrumentation is a mournful ballad rather than a joyful pop song, a perfect antithesis to the ecstatic “Praise.”

The structure of this album is highly reminiscent of another pop classic, Talking Heads’ Remain in Light. Both albums have a gradual slowing of tempo and greying of tone, yet, while Remain in Light ends with the crushing “The Overload,” Lennox inserts one final burst of brightness at the end with “Defense.” The decision to end with a rock anthem rather than leaving on a dire note drastically changes the album’s message, as instead of conveying an attitude of hopelessness, Lennox shows us there is light at the end of the tunnel.

While this tone shift might appear unexpected, attentive listeners will find that the “sinister grift” reveals itself early on. Throughout the album, Lennox’s lyrics are sorrowful. Like Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, Lennox masks serious personal struggles with sweet vocals and sanguine songwriting. His recent divorce from his longtime partner, fashion designer Fernanda Pereira, serves as a major influence on the lyrical content. The album’s opening track is about the lopsided relationship of parent and child, with the latter potentially unresponsive to their parent’s love. Similar themes of unreciprocated effort appear on the following track, “Anywhere but Here,” with lyrical ideas surrounding the desire to do right and love others regardless of whether anything is received in return. This track also features Nadja Lennox, Lennox’s daughter, reading poetry she wrote in Portuguese to drive home the song's themes with lines such as “Treat well regardless of the return / because what others do it’s not up to us.” “Ferry Lady” is a more direct display of his feelings about his divorce, a ballad lamenting the loss of someone from your life that was previously very close, disguised in the sounds of dub and psychedelic pop. From the beginning, the “sinister” concerns of Sinister Grift are made apparent through the lyrics, even if the music isn’t initially as foreboding. These topics continue through the album’s moodier half, with songs such as “Venom’s In” contemplating the idea of inevitability, using “venom” as a rhetorical tool to refer to something that is bound to reach its demise but can’t be avoided. Lennox’s lyrics are not blunt but instead present melancholic themes in a general way that can be related to by anyone. It's the honesty and introspection on this album that make it so lyrically compelling. 

Panda Bear’s Sinister Grift is not meant to have a single interpretation, or to convey a single emotion. Just like the duality of the album’s tracklist and the lyrical-musical contrast, Lennox reminds us it is important to take the good with the bad, and to take the hard news with a bit of levity and a smile.

Favorite Tracks: Defense, Venom’s In, Praise

Rating: INDY

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Elliot Anderson is a first-year in the College majoring in Biology and minoring in cultural zeitgeists.