Young Prayer

Young Prayer is the second solo album by American experimental pop musician Panda Bear, released on September 28, 2004. It follows his debut solo album Panda Bear (1999). It is his first since co-founding Animal Collective.

Young Prayer
Studio album by Panda Bear
Released	September 28, 2004
Genre	Psychedelic folk, ambient
Length	28:08
Label	Paw Tracks
Producer	Rusty Santos, Animal Collective
Panda Bear chronology
Hollinndagain (2003) Young Prayer (2004) Person Pitch (2007)

Background

None of the songs on the album have a title because Lennox wanted the album to be "one nugget of sound. I put the track markers in there just to separate the sections."[1]

The songs were all written around the time of the death of Lennox' father. About this fact, Lennox said:

It was more a gift to my father when he was sick and I wanted to make him happy if I could and I wanted to cheer him up and I wanted to tell him that he’d done really great in his time. I was pretty fucked up but I wanted to keep going and I wanted to have strength and I suppose that comes out in the recording. I wouldn’t say it was therapeutic though, at least I never thought of it that way.[1]

In another Interview, Lennox got into detail about this:

[...] he [his father] did get to hear the roughs of the album’s songs, if not the finished version. That was recorded in the room he actually died in, so it was especially intense. With Young Prayer, I wanted to tell him that he had taught me really well. I wanted to be like, ‘It’s been really good hanging out and learning from you, you’ve been a really good man and set a good example’.[2]

The whole album was written in a very quick process and recorded with Animal Collective member Deakin in "two or three days or something."[3]
According to the artist, it "is very classically influenced. All the weird baroque flourishes and stuff in terms of the way I’m singing. And that was definitely intentional, I set out to do something that sounded like that."[3]
The album was produced and mixed entirely without Lennox by Rusty Santos and the rest of Animal Collective. Though it was changed quite a bit during the post-production, Lennox was "very happy with the way it sounded"[4] when he received the result.

The album art was produced by Abby Portner, the sister of fellow Animal Collective member Dave Portner aka Avey Tare.

Reception

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	76/100[5]
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[6]
Coke Machine Glow	77%[7]
NME	8/10[5]
Pitchfork Media	8.5/10[8]
Playlouder	[9]
Sputnikmusic	4/5[10]
Stylus Magazine	A-[11]
Uncut	[5]
Under the Radar	[5]

The album was a critical success, even being labeled "Best New Music" by Pitchfork.

Track listing

All tracks are written by Noah Lennox.

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Untitled"	2:57
2.	"Untitled"	2:03
3.	"Untitled"	1:05
4.	"Untitled"	5:11
5.	"Untitled"	2:59
6.	"Untitled"	3:09
7.	"Untitled"	3:11
8.	"Untitled"	2:48
9.	"Untitled"	4:45
Total length:		27:58

References

1. Interview The Milk Factory, April 2005
2. MOTHER NATURE’S SONS: Animal Collective and Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti by Simon Reynolds, The Wire, 2005
3. Hatch-Miller, R. "Dusted Feature: Panda Bear," Dusted Magazine.
4. Interview, Má Fama radio, January 8, 2007
5. "Critic Reviews for Young Prayer by Panda Bear". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved January 19, 2015.
6. Allmusic review
7. Hepburn, Peter (October 6, 2004). "Panda Bear: Young Prayer". Coke Machine Glow. Retrieved January 19, 2015.
8. Pitchfork Media review
9. Heawood, Sophie (November 11, 2004). "review - Young Prayer". Playlouder. Retrieved January 19, 2015.
10. Robertson, Alex (June 30, 2009). "Panda Bear - Young Prayer". Sputnikmusic. Retrieved January 19, 2015.
11. De Young, Nate (October 7, 2004). "Panda Bear - Young Prayer". Stylus Magazine. Retrieved January 19, 2015.