Basement’s Best: Panda Bear’s “Reaper” nothing to fear

Though its title reads more like a canned Godzilla spinoff, Panda Bear’s fifth record, “Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper,” finds the Noah Lennox “nom de band”bolstering his uniquely dense, mercurial headphone-pop to float serious observations on depression, alienation and, you guessed it, death.

Reining in some of the sample-happy, throw-it-at-the-wall glee that defined his earlier efforts, the Animal Collective alumnus casts over his saucer-eyed whimsy a brooding sense of anxious distress.

Commencing with the dreamily dirge-like chorale “Sequential Circuits,” Lennox’s Beach Boy-esque vocal harmonies call and respond atop ambiently babbling rills. Lennox’s wry sense of irony isn’t lost in the transition between “Circuits” and the lead single, “Mr. Noah,” as those streams flow into a menagerie of whimpering dogs and a crushing ‘90s throwback beat.

Though Panda Bear hasn’t been known for such concrete genre appropriation, the nostalgic backbeats that serve as the album’s spine are deeply indebted to the brick wall breaks of A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, J Dilla, et al., a debt acknowledged by Lennox in a recent Rolling Stone writeup.

Elsewhere, Lennox drops the boombox and cardboard mats and explores more cerebral territory. On standout “Boys Latin,” Lennox’s vocal echoes build a dizzying tension, further darkening the lyrically stormy vignette. As murky synths collect in dark pools, the vocal stabs fall with raindrop persistence, precipitating an aptly moody atmosphere.

At times, Lennox dares to shed the circus of sound completely, as on the Nutcracker-quoting “Tropic of Cancer.” While Lennox is never one to leave a blank spot on his canvas, “Tropic” is sonically prudent, gliding on the cathedral reverberation of his cooed wails and a fountain of Tchaikovsky’s cherub-like harp arpeggios.

If Panda Bear’s catalogue, which has been widely characterized as “druggy,” consists of mostly psilocybin collages, “Reaper” is a decidedly opiate-addled installment, lunging from euphoric heights to numbly fazed valleys.

While the lyrics of Lennox’s previous works seemed to be little more than second-thought placeholders to flaunt his boyish tenor, his peripheral musings on alienation and death here are worth more than the notes they carry.

While Lennox hasn’t shaved his typically oblique lines, his flashes of worldly wonderment are more tangible, more relatable this time around.

Brilliantly subdued and exquisitely expansive, “Reaper” arrives as one of 2015’s first great records.

KNDS Suggests

“Primrose Green,” Ryley Walker

Wafting by with the same hot tea steam that blew through Nick Drake’s jazz-tinged “Bryter Layter” LP, Chicagoan guitarist Walker cooks up a lush, knotty ramble that somersaults by with Darjeeling grace.

“Vessel,” Dan Mangan & Blacksmith

You can tell ‘em you heard it here first: Prog is cool again. Juno Award-winner Dan Mangan and crew dust off the tapes of the ol’ Mellotron and build a powerhouse of a single, though wisely avoid the heavy-handed Tolkien-steeped lyrics that plagued the genre the first time around.

“Heavy Light (Live),” Dr. Dog

If you live long enough as a band to put out, say, six or seven LPs, the double live album is just plain inevitable. Culled from 20-plus shows from their most recent “B-Room”-supporting tour (#8 in the discography, mind you), the good doctor’s “Live at a Flamingo Hotel” thrives on an electric thrill best evidenced on deeply grooving “Heavy Light.”

“Everyone’s Summer of ‘95,” Iron & Wine

Sam Beam knows what you did last (decade’s) summer. Beam, best known as whispercore troubadour Iron & Wine, announced the upcoming release of the first volume of his Archival Series records with this bare-boned and expectedly pure-hearted demo.

“Ray Gun,” BADBADNOTGOOD & Ghostface Killah ft. DOOM

Anybody else remember that Wu Tang/Budos Band mashup album from a few years back? Y’know, that one that was holy-shit-how-did-nobody-think-of-this-before good? This is like that. But with DOOM. And holy-shit better.