Release Date: Sep 28, 2004
Genre(s): Indie, Rock
Record label: Paw Tracks
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Composed and recorded following the death of Panda Bear's father, it is perhaps no surprise that Young Prayer comes off as a musical eulogy. But it is nothing like a wild outpouring of emotion. There is no tearing of hair or gnashing of teeth here. Rather, the short album is a restrained lamentation, a controlled elegiac mediation on the death of a loved one.
After a stunning new record and a series of live sets scattered across the country, everyone's eyes are on Brooklyn's Animal Collective. Undaunted by the increased attention, Panda Bear (one-half of the current AC) has released his first widely available solo record, Young Prayer. Recorded after the passing of his father in 2002, and thus well before Sung Tongs, Panda Bear's solo disc stems from a much different time and place (in more ways than one) than any of the music he has made in a group context.