Review Summary: One big trip.
Pond is an Australian neo-psychedelic rock group whose major claim to fame unfortunately still seems to be the fact that it shares two members with equally fantastic but more popular Tame Impala. Luckily for them, the release of 2012’s
Beard, Wives, Denim placed the band at the forefront of Australia’s growing psychedelic movement, although follow-up
Hobo Rocket did not meet as much acclaim upon its release. This new effort surprisingly scales back the fuzz and distortion and instead opts for a poppier, synth-driven sound, while maintaining the lovable, tripped-out weirdness the band has become known for.
This shift in sound is a little unprecedented, but that certainly doesn’t mean the band has lost its basic psychedelic qualities. If anything, they’ve only upped the ante here, with songs such as opener “Waiting Around For Grace”, which starts off spacey yet chilled, before blasting off into the psychedelic stratosphere that the album remains for the rest of the duration. “Elvis’ Flaming Star” and “Zond” provide the poppiest (and funkiest) excursions here, but even they are psychedelic freakouts themselves, with both tracks filled to the brim with trippy effects that other members of the Australian psych-rock movement (Tame Impala, Melody’s Echo Chamber) have become known for. Closer “Man, It Feels Like Space Again” gets the closest to sounding like the other bands in the movement, though, drifting along in multiple directions as unearthly sound effects bubble and sizzle throughout in a giant mesh of blissful incoherence. However,
Man, It Feels Like Space Again differs from these acts as well as the rest of Pond’s discography by being much lighter and breathable, with slow burners such as the elevated “Holding Out For You” and the acoustic-driven, MGMT-esque “Medicine Hat”. “Sitting Up On Our Crane” follows this concept as well, although the explosion of synths and guitars that come through later on feel much more Tame Impala-esque.
These comparisons between Pond and their contemporaries have been worn to death since
Beards, Wives, Denim, but the bigger question is how much the connections even matter. Tame Impala’s constant pondering of being content towards being alone is irrelevant compared to Pond’s flippant attitude. After all, you cannot take a band with song titles like “Heroic Shart” very seriously. No one is listening to Pond for their seriousness, though.
Man, It Feels Like Space Again is one of Pond’s best works, if only because of the fact that it is so much fun to listen to.
