Review Summary: Livin', but you just want more
While Noah Lennox (Animal Collective's
Panda Bear) and Peter Kember (Spacemen 3’s
Sonic Boom) have collaborated on their respective solo projects,
Reset marks the first time that they've embarked upon a full-length album as co-creators. The record explores 1960s psychedelic pop, and while the results may not be anything
new, it still makes for an enjoyable listen that emits the warmth of summer afternoons while serving up a handful of undeniable earworms in the process. If you like electronic/psychedelic music and/or have an appreciation for the Beach Boys, then you've stumbled into the right place.
The album succeeds the most when it aims for breeziness and brevity. We get that right off the bat with "Gettin' to the Point", which features a drawn-out sugary chorus that oozes across the song's entire two and a half minutes, covering it in sticky sweetness. Midsection gems 'Edge of the Edge' and 'In My Body' feature some stylistic nods to Brian Wilson & co. with their harmonized refrains and, on the former, some baritone
buh-duh-duh-dum's atop fuzzy synth keys. Most of the songs here offer at least
some sense of melodic warmth, but
Reset's glowing epicenter is easily 'Livin' in the After' - a rich, flourishing pop song replete with dancing strings and a massive vocal hook. It's the kind of song you could play in the dead of winter and end up instantly transported to the shimmering sands of a remote tropical paradise.
When
Reset leans into these vibes, it's an unstoppable force of summery psych-pop; however, it doesn't quite take off the way that it should. It often wanders too far into experimental territory and gets lost there, forgetting where its strengths truly lie. For instance, 'Go On' - despite its oddly alluring chants of "give it to me" - kills most of the momentum garnered by the sprightly, catchy 'Gettin' to the Point' by slowing the pace to a crawl and inundating the atmosphere with clashing/inharmonious aesthetics. Then there's 'Whirlpool', which is essentially five minutes of dead space that somehow isn't lush enough to seem atmospheric or well-arranged enough to be all that intriguing. Elsewhere, 'Danger' seems overlong and vocally atonal, additionally wasting a gorgeous acoustic guitar chord by refusing to vary it at all across the track's nearly six minute runtime. There are certainly happy mediums present, like the subtly memorable 'Everyday' or the bubbling creativity and uptempo pace of 'Everything's Been Leading To This', but the prevailing feeling here is one of an unscratched itch - it's a bit too all-over-the-place to deliver on the promise displayed by its best moments.
Reset, in spite of its flaws, still offers a unique wrinkle in the Animal Collective fabric that's worth exploring. Even if you only come back for the saccharine highs, some of the record's more subtle moments will continue to tug at your ankles like a strong undertow. There's a mystical haze to this that pairs well with the glistening August sun - it's strangely at odds with itself, and most assuredly imperfect, but it's also charming and highly alluring.
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