5 out of 5

Label: Southern

Produced by: John Congleton

I totally went backwards with 90 Day Men.  I saw them live during the (It (Is) It) era, but unfortunately it was at a show with The Faint, and since I hated the latter (simply because of their label association with Bright Eyes, whom I hated simply because Conor Oberst represented some kind of emotionally expressive ideal I couldn’t achieve… and also maybe I didn’t like the music) I automatically disliked the former, as my music yea / nay brain – if that parenthetical didn’t already make it clear – is an easily swayed idiot.

Along those lines, later, when I guy I had a hate / love relationship with pushed To Everybody on me as a genius EP, my hate won out, though the love kept the band’s name pinging around in my skull for a bit.  “I saw them live once,” I could say, and actually be telling the truth.

I honestly have no clue why I bought Panda Park.  I’m going to lay it at the feet of a review, because most of the reviews you read talk about how no one had any idea how to describe the album, and that sounds like something that would appeal to me.  (Reminder: easily swayed idiot.)  But I also know that I liked the half-dumb, half-trippy cover, and the album design in general (credited to Jon Beasley), and that it appeared on Southern… and oh, look, so did their previous albums.  Maybe I’d give it a shot.

I also have no idea how to describe the album.  I don’t know why Brian Case’s atonal vocals are perfect.  I don’t understand how piano pop turns into some of the darkest, moodiest music I’ve ever heard.  I don’t get how completely oblique lyrics send a shiver up my spine, or where the time goes when tracks that extend over six minutes seem as tight and compressed as the two or three minute tracks.  The weird, operatic vocals of Silver and Snow seemed so silly to me at first, but now I can’t comprehend the album without them.  Is that Case singing?  I have no idea.

I’ve since gone back and loved To Everybody, and (It (Is) It).  I still love Panda Park.  I still rue the day that everyone glommed on to how fantastic a producer John Congleton can be, because sat with an incredibly unique band – such as 90 Day Men – who have a million tools in their toolbox, if only to use them for the briefest of flourishes, John’s lush, organic style makes music like Panda Park’s simply otherworldly.  This is rock, and their are plenty of psychedelic / prog sounds-like comparisons to toss out, but none of them are really that on point, and this review is very review-less.  Just expect to have a kind of WTF grimace on when first hearing Case’s weird vocal variations over swirling layers of smoothed out piano, guitar, bass, and drums, realizing that it somehow sounds completely natural.  Then, later, when that melody in your head gets traced back to Panda Park, you’ll be well on your way to not being able to listen to much else for a short while.

I don’t regret it.  I mean, I always knew they were good, yeah?