MAN IT FEELS LIKE SPACE AGAIN

Pond, formed by a former Tame Impala member, has been half-jokingly self-described as "a joke" and just plain every rock cliche there ever was, but what I can say with conviction is that Pond is one of the greatest bands out there right now. This album, their crowning achievement so far, is a fun, beautiful, and enjoyable walking tour of every great trend in neo-psychedelia, from the '80's alt rock leaning, Bunnymen and Spacemen sounding styles, through '90's era Spiritualized, and into the modern indie psych of The Flaming Lips, Electric Wurms, MGMT, and of course Impala themselves, including their wilder, more experimental sides. This is all smashingly played in the prog idiom, wonderfully mixing and matching these varying styles and never having a dull moment. This goes from the expected easy-then-wild guitars and ethereal vocals to unexpected keyboard freakouts and short bursts of concrete. The eclecticism really makes the record so fascinating, and yet it this will always sound like Pond, much the way Floyd was always Floyd. Has immediately become a front-runner for album of the year 2015, highly, highly recommended.

3.5 stars. I generally prefer dark and serious music to light and fun but if you like the latter then you need to check this album out. I mean just look at the picture of the band on the bio here in sunny Australia. We get two TAME IMPALA guys along with three others making this a five piece and four are multi-instrumentalists so three guitarists, three keyboardists, two bass players, well you get the picture. This band has released nine studio albums between 2009 and 2021 and many feel this is their best.

The biggest revelation when I started to spend some time with this album was how much I was reminded of KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD. The setup of multi-instrumentalists, the vocals, the sound at times. It got me excited because this is the first band that reminded me of KING GIZZARD and fellow Ozzies POND had to have been an influence. The opener "Waiting Around For Grace" you know the one with the pretty face along with the title track that closes the album standout head and shoulders above the rest. Two killer tunes but the rest is hit and miss for me hence the rating. Glad to have finally spent some time with this one and yes TAME IMPALA fans need to check this band out.