In Review: Pond- Tasmania

The Australian band Pond have returned this year with their eighth studio album titled 'Tasmania'. It has been announced as the sister album to their previous release 'The Weather' from 2017. Both albums and like all the others, have been produced by Kevin Baker of Tame Impala fame with whom the band also shares band members and they also tour together.

For their eight studio long player the band is taking us to the Island of Inspiration, or so to say, it feels that the band managed to draw a great deal of inspiration from their native Australia and Tasmania. Like the previous album and most of their releases, this one is in the Psychedelia vein and it explores the new topics with the well kept music formula. It tackles some political and environmental issues, without getting too heavy and remaining on the pop ground. The album opens with "Daisy" and "Sixteen Days", both previously released as singles. "Daisy" is perfect for spring break and a start of new concept, the Geneve inspired "Sixteen days" follow and gets us some French lines and another highlight comes with "Tasmania" and the wonderful chorus "I might, I might go shack up in Tasmania, Before the ozone goes, And paradise burns in Australia" where the synth elements play very well with the proggy guitars. By reaching the middle of the album, the songs get more elaborated, thicker and less immediate, with "Goodnight P.C.C." and "Burned out Star" eventually closing with the apocalyptic "Doctor's In" track. Here and there are nice sound accessories which contribute to the layering of the sound including, retro vocoders, colourful guitars and glitchy forms on "Shame". Another interesting feature is the inviting album cover which seems to be Poloroid inspired and it implies that based on the single released so far that each colour will represents one song on the album.

Colourful as it comes, this psychedelic cocktail will give a nice intro to a Spring start, wherever it may hit, and might also be the preparation for the new Tame Impala album which will hopefully be ready for this summer.

In Review: Ladytron - Ladytron

Ladytron have released their sixth studio album eponymously entitled ‘Ladytron’ after seven years of hiatus. The album was co-produced by Jim Abbiss, also a reference to the Ladytron’s third album ‘The Witching Hour’ which most people believe is band’s most successful album to date. The latest long player was released in partnership with Pledgemusic and it was promoted with series of singles throughout 2018.

 Originally founded in Liverpool, Ladytron have been in the music business for twenty years now. In the early 00’s they started off well with their very innovative and distinct analogue synth pop form and soon, with the rise of Electroclash, became this style’s ultimate trademark. Towards to the mid 00's the band began to experiment even more with the music, embracing new elements and musical arrangements, becoming more mature and complex in sound.

 The brand new album 'Ladytron' is out today, February 15th, and it has been announced  as being much heavier than their previous work on 'Gravity the Seducer'. And indeed, the album does not have this immediate effect on the listener like the first two promo singles "Animals" and "The Island", but still, it manages to get under the skin. Once again the band returns with dark and very atmospheric sound that spreads over the whole album and it sounds like a compilation of songs and styles from all their albums, in a brand new song collection. The majority of songs on the album are performed by Helen Marnie whereas Mira Aroyo take leads on two tracks, "Paper Highways" and "Horrorscope". The former is also one of the album highlights placed halfway through the record changing the dynamics of the album for better course towards the end. Along "Paper Highways", the singles, the haunting "Figurine", dreamy and hypnotic "The Mountain" and acid "Deadzone" are clearly the high spots on the record. There are tracks where the bouncy synth elements might be over exposed, yet this does not affect album's balance in whole a lot.

This album has not revealed anything ground breaking from Ladytron's end, but overall happy to see that band is back and that we have been able to listen to their first new sound in seven years. With this album they mange to make a very nice comeback and round up Ladytron's body of work that now includes two decades. 


78/100

In Review: Sharon van Etten- Remind Me Tomorrow

American singer and songwriter Sharon van Etten released her fifth studio album 'Remind me Tomorrow' on Jagjaguwar in mid-January. This album, in a way, also marks the ten year anniversary since her eponymous debut in 2008 and comes as a follow up to her 2014 release ‘Are We There'. There is an evident gap of four years which Sharon has been using to explore new grounds with acting and she also gave birth to her first child. New events in life certainly have had an impact on this new content which Sharon presented in ‘Remind me Tomorrow’.

"Remind Me Tomorrow" was produced by John Congleton which already successfully worked with Dirty Projectors and St Vincent. It clocks at 41 minutes and includes ten tracks out of which only one goes over 5 minutes and it seems pretty much like a straight forward release. As we did not experience much of Sharon’s previous work, we will treat this as standalone album review. 
Overall the album has a nice atmosphere and feel, and it is very evident that synth arrangements are taking the leads on this record. All in all, going track by track, there are also small instrumentation parts involved, but very measured which keeps up the listeners attention throughout the record. The decision with the two opening tracks in not something I am very happy about, neither lyrically nor production wise, but somehow this is the path up, to the first highlight of the album, the song “Memorial Day” which together with “Jupiter 4” and “Hands” mark this record's highlights. The blanket of synth ambiance seems to be spread over the most of the album's songs and the diversity and quality comes with the layered elements which bring the right amount of decoration to the sound. Organic elements meet with the synthetic textures and manage to spice it up with glitch drums, quirky synths and drone sounds. At the same time Sharon sticks to her very distinct style and her voice modulates perfectly and remains in the center of things.

Overall the album has a nice narrative and although there are weaker tracks it does not threat the dynamics of the whole album nor does it bore the listener. There do not seem to be exceptional lyrical highlights, yet the Sharon mangers to convey her emotion to the listener. Having also listened her previous album while I am writing this review, only confirms that that Sharon steps beyond her scope to create this new cosmic artwork.

82/100

In Review: U.S. Girls- In A Poem Unlimited

U.S. Girls aka Meghan Remy released her seventh studio album 'In a Poem Unlimited' this February and her second all together on the 4AD label. This album comes as a follow up to 'Half Free' from 2015 and its release was preceded with the lead single "M.A.H." which came out last year. The brand new album includes 11 new tracks and it was recorded in collaboration with Meg's husband Max Turnbull aka Slim Twig and his band The Cosmic Range.

U.S. Girls has always been good in experimenting with sound and influences, even before their time on 4AD, and this has not changed even with this release and their artpop seem to have even become more vivid this time. The beats on new album reflect 60's and 70's music styles influences, free jazz forms, boogie disco and funk which turn this venture into more organic and expressive music event. It is very dynamic with some pop delights here and there, the lead single "M.A.H.", downtempo "Rosebud" and more electronically structured "Pearly Gates" and "Poem". Vocally Meg's voice register seems to adjust to the music easily from soft whispering Kylish flavour to full soaring ranges. In terms of content, there is angry political commentary to the songs where it stands up against public lies by political and religious leaders as well as studies about gender power imbalances.

 

Now when we compare it with the previous album, there is the impression that the 'Half Free' even more raw in production, was somehow a rounded up concept,  sample based and obscure, that gave the impression of a more intimate affair with the artist. With "In a Poem Unlimited" it seems that the elements that bring the music together and the instrumentation on some tracks seems to be overexposed and a bit out of place. And track wise we are missing a tune that could reach the quality heights of the  brilliant "Woman's Work" from the 'Half Free'.

 

Overall U.S. Girls has expended their territory musically well and some songs have really nice production quality and the protest tone resonates well with the grooves, but as global product it comes too much as polished light Pop for what we would rather have preferred another experiment with loops and samples and therefore a slight downgrade to 'Half Free'.

Release Date: February 16th