Buoys

Four years after Noah Lennox's last album, 2015’s densely layered Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper, and a year after the more abrasive A Day with the Homies EP, Buoys is a reflection of the Animal Collective member’s reliable quirks. His lyrics are typically cryptic, and the production is as sun-kissed as the Lisbon hilltop where he lives. This sixth solo studio LP as Panda Bear also marks a subtle but important shift in his methods. He’s discovered Auto-Tune, for one thing, while producer Rusty Santos, a longtime accomplice, brought his recent interest in Latin trap to the table, opening up a newfound sense of space not heard on previous Panda Bear albums. The result is a dreamscape of weightless vocals, flickering acoustic guitars and impossibly deep bass synths. Here, Lennox tells Apple Music about finessing Buoys’ bulbous low end, approaching lyrics like a message in a bottle and learning to love his machines’ idiosyncrasies. Some of the lyrics here and on A Day with the Homies almost sound like messages you’ve written to someone that you’ve decided not to send. Are there people who would recognise themselves in these songs? I feel like this one is more for my kids—almost like a time capsule for them. I always thought of Homies and Buoys as being two sides of the same coin. They’re both similarly motivated, lyrically. But Homies feels a lot darker and more cynical, whereas Buoys feels like an embrace or a hug. There’s a great line on “Crescendo": “Ripple with friends that ripple with you.” With the lyrics, I hoped for little phrases that people could grasp on to, because there isn’t really a story being told. If there’s a narrative, it’s in the instruments. What were the biggest changes in making Buoys, compared to Grim Reaper? There were techniques I’d employed over the previous few records that I wanted to get away from—specifically, the vocal production. It was the first thing I mentioned to Rusty when I asked him to work with me. It was about a week into