Panda Bear – “Defense” [Video]

Panda Bear, the solo project of Animal Collective’s Noah Lennox, announces his new full-length Sinister Grift, due out February 28, 2025 on Domino. Lennox recorded the album at his Estudio Campo in Lisbon, Portugal and co-produced it with his Animal Collective bandmate Josh Dibb. Today he shares the album’s first single “Defense,” which features Cindy Lee, the persona of Canadian musician Patrick Flegel, on guitar.

Sinister Grift is available for pre-order on limited-edition Clear vinyl (Domino Mart), Curacao Blue vinyl (indie exclusive), standard LP, CD, and digitally. All LPs include a double-sided 12”x36” poster. Also available for pre-order on the Domino Mart is a limited-edition Sinister Grift shirt. Domino Mart | Digital

A 7″ single of “Defense” will be available only at select indie retail stores globally this Friday, October 18. The single’s B-side features a new track, “Virginia Tech,” which is exclusive to the 7”.

Two decades since debuting as the masked-and-nicknamed drummer and vocalist of Animal Collective, Noah Lennox has led so many creative lives, navigated so many different styles, and been part of so many beloved recordings, that it can be easy to overlook just how consistent his creative vision has remained. From landmark solo albums like 2007’s Person Pitch and 2015’s Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper, to breakthroughs with Animal Collective like 2004’s Sung Tongs and 2009’s Merriweather Post Pavilion, to his boundary-pushing collaborations with Daft Punk, Solange, Dean Blunt, Paramore and Jamie xx, all of his work followed an instantly identifiable emotional throughline while influencing multiple generations and genres of artists.

On Sinister Grift, Lennox’s first solo album in five years, he has returned with another statement that feels equally cumulative and unprecedented in his catalog. While his solo records have ranged from starkly intimate expressions of grief to colorful, electronic opuses, his music has never before sounded so warm and immediate. Working in his Lisbon, Portugal home studio with Animal Collective bandmate Josh “Deakin” Dibb, Lennox transforms Panda Bear into something resembling an old-school rock ensemble, playing nearly all the instruments himself and inviting kindred spirits into the process such as Cindy Lee, Spirit of the Beehive’s Rivka Ravede, and—for the first time on a Panda Bear solo album—each of his Animal Collective bandmates.