Animal Collective can be an acquired taste. However those listeners who find their work grating, may well respond more positively to the solo work from the parts comprising the sum of the Baltimore-born indie-psych outfit. The releases from Mr. Noah Lennox, the man they call Panda Bear, have helped to set him apart from that which he does in the company of fellow Animals Avey Tare, Geologist and Deakin, while establishing a firm brand of trippy art pop entirely unique unto him.

And on his fifth and finest album yet, the Panda man digs his claws into the world of EDM with a gratuitous spoonful of help from the mighty Sonic Boom of Spacemen 3 fame. The legendary underground figure born Pete Kempter really shows how he got his stage handle by facilitating a playing field in where Lennox can really sink his teeth into. As can be figured in the title, the themes of Panda Bear vs. The Grim Reaper revolve around his advancement into middle age, which, when coupled with the atmosphere of his present residential surroundings in Portugal produce the elastic, rhythm-driven headiness that really hits you on tracks like “Mr. Noah” and “Boys Latin”.

Together, this cross-generational power tandem really lives up to the kind of expectations serious fans would come to expect from such a pairing. It would be great to see where the studio takes these two from here.