Good Luck and Do Your Best

Gold Panda - Good Luck and Do Your Best
Critic Score
Based on 20 reviews
2016 Ratings: #172 / 1004
User Score
Based on 124 ratings
2016 Rank: #287
Liked by 3 people
May 27, 2016 / Release Date
LP / Format
City Slang / Label
Microhouse, IDM / Genre
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CRITIC REVIEWS

100
The Skinny

Good Luck and Do Your Best is imbued with shiny-eyed, open-hearted optimism, and built with all the sensitivity and care that we’ve come to expect from anything Gold Panda touches.

80
Drowned in Sound
There is a swagger to the songs that is hard to ignore – Panda has created the album that he has always hinted at.
80
musicOMH
From start to finish, Gold Panda’s third LP is as uplifting as the title it was born from.
80
PopMatters
These songs contain more than organic qualities. They contain full-fledged organisms, audio-biologies that speed through life stages and gasp for air.
80
AllMusic

Inspired by a trip to Japan, Good Luck and Do Your Best is one of Gold Panda's warmest, sunniest releases, reflecting the colorful foliage of the island nation.

80
Under the Radar
As with previous releases, Gold Panda blends repetition with rich sonic textures that are so diverse that they are almost tactile. This is one of 2016's best electronic albums so far, and it's difficult to see how it can be topped.
80
The Line of Best Fit

Executed with conviction and instilled with its spirited concept, Good Luck and Do Your Best is an excitingly off-beat take on a feel-good album. This is Gold Panda’s most accomplished and adventurous work yet.

80
Exclaim!

GLADYB doesn't really deviate from the path that was laid down by previous albums Lucky Shiner and Half of Where You Live, but — perhaps even more impressively — it stays decidedly on it, rounding out a beautiful trilogy of semi-danceable, definitely nod-able records. It may even be his best.

80
Loud and Quiet
After the glitching melodies and bright, busy eclecticism of his debut, and the Orient-inspired, analogue imagination of the follow-up, album number three is Derwin Panda’s most optimistic to date.
80
The Guardian
More than an audio travel journal, though, these songs are headline festival sundowners: the slow-burning acoustic thrum of I Am a Real Punk, the gorgeously textured, jazz-inflected Autumn Fall and Time Eater’s sombre temple-step. Bound to give you that warm, fuzzy feeling.
75
Consequence of Sound

Good Luck and Do Your Best is an album about journeys, walking as a stranger through a new world, and finding grace and comfort in anonymity. As such, the album serves as a journey of its own, a bit of peace ideal for a bus ride or walk, a path to find solace in isolation and contemplation.

74
Pitchfork
It sounds quite unlike any of the electronic music being made in 2016, and is refreshingly unfashionable in that way.
72
Resident Advisor

What's unique about Good Luck is how it sounds less like a specific place than a flurry of memories made there.

70
No Ripcord
Despite not taking any drastic leaps, he’s once again delivered another wide-eyed, hypnotic set that finds a satisfactory compromise between quasi-ambient soundscapes and headphone-nodding grooves.
60
DIY
The third studio album from Gold Panda sees both imagery and sound bond together.
58
Pretty Much Amazing

There is variety in the minute details that’s lost on the grand scope, as Good Luck draws too much from the same source.

Raiksheen
75

Good

Aoaystheory
84

Gold Panda becomes our own personal tour guide as he uses his exotic palette to transport us to foreign lands.

Producer Gold Panda is no stranger to Japan, or to traveling for that matter. His new record “Good Luck and Do Your Best” prominently displays his exotic palette and his ability to express it through soundscapes built from short samples and synthesizers. This is not his first attempt at faraway electronic music, his debut and sophomore records both capitalized on the same ... read more

thisisabtlgrnd
81

Ohhhh baby. Best Gold Panda album yet. So many textures. "In My Car" is one of my jams of the year.

Favorite tracks: In My Car, Song for a Dead Friend, Metal Bird, I Am Real Punk, Time Eater

Iwush
83

listened on 9/20/21

Raiksheen
75

Good

Z.Younk
81

I gave it 4 years, and as a whole, this may actually be the best Gold Panda records.

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Added on: February 23, 2016