The High Llamas – Hey Panda (2024) [FLAC 24bit/48kHz]

The High Llamas – Hey Panda (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 39:56 minutes | 439 MB | Genre: Indie Pop, Chamber Pop, Art Pop, Electronic, Lounge
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Drag City

Opened up by the delirious alchemy of contemporary pop music, Sean O’Hagan leaps back into life with High Llamas, with a set of killer tunes reflecting on dimensional levels how definitions change over time. Arranged by Sean and produced with mix collaborator Fryars to engage the eardrums in non-stop new possibilities, Hey Panda radiates optimism inspired by the joys and sorrows felt in former lifetimes and the diverse conundrums of today alike.

A modern pop music / deep listening experience that could only issue forth from their personal quadrant of the galaxy. Hey Panda projects soulfully through an enervating abstract of today’s popular music; the sound of the Llamas’ stately melodies and expressive ditties laid open – blissfully shattered – with drums and vocals hitting different, burning sounds and contemporary production twists pulling the ear at every turn.

Eight years since their last release, the pop musical Here Come The Rattling Trees, High Llamas have reinvented themselves again, mixing their peerless harmonic voice with what Sean regards as the “extraordinarily good” production sounds of today on Hey Panda.You never quite know what you’ll get with a new High Llamas album. That’s certainly not a complaint—but a reflection of the insatiable curiosity and adventurous spirit of the band’s founder and leader Sean O’Hagan. In recent times, he embarked on typically eclectic projects, including scoring the Safdie Brothers’ 2022 film Funny Pages and contributing to The Coral’s 2023 album Sea of Mirrors.

For Hey Panda—the first High Llamas album since 2016’s antique-pop opus Here Come the Rattling Trees—O’Hagan was inspired by the world-shifting production of the late J Dilla. “Dilla reshaped the world,” he has said. “We live in the finest non-judgmental musical times where the legacies of soul, jazz and lo-fi indie have produced a hybrid of generous and stunning creativity. I want Hey Panda to be of this generation.”

It’s a lofty goal, but Hey Panda successfully weaves together elements from all of those genres, encompassing bubbly pop (“Bade Amey”), glitchy beats (the hip-hop-influenced “Toriafan”), and whimsical electro (the strings-augmented “Sister Friends”). O’Hagan’s spirit of collaboration is also strong. “How the Best Was Won” and “Hungriest Man” are co-writes with Bonnie “Prince” Billy and, unsurprisingly, both are highlights: The former resembles the watery electro of James Blake, while the latter is dreamy soul-folk.

Hey Panda isn’t totally divorced from the High Llamas’ past; among other things, the sun-kissed bubblegum electro highlight “Fall Off the Mountain” is a higher-energy version of 1998’s Cold and Bouncy. But O’Hagan’s songwriting feels strikingly modern on Hey Panda—leading to refreshing (and refreshed) pop music that’s a pure delight. – Annie Zaleski

Tracklist:

1-1. The High Llamas – Hey Panda (03:32)
1-2. The High Llamas – Fall Off The Mountain (02:41)
1-3. The High Llamas – Bade Amey (03:04)
1-4. The High Llamas – Sisters Friends (03:24)
1-5. The High Llamas – How The Best Was Won (02:59)
1-6. The High Llamas – The Grade (03:09)
1-7. The High Llamas – Yoga Goat (02:53)
1-8. The High Llamas – Stone Cold Slow (03:16)
1-9. The High Llamas – Toriafan (03:21)
1-10. The High Llamas – Hungriest Man (05:01)
1-11. The High Llamas – The Water Moves (02:48)
1-12. The High Llamas – La Masse (03:42)

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