matt pond PA
The Dark Leaves
(Altitude Records!)
Rating: 2.8 of 5
Despite recording and touring as guitarist in The Wooden Birds for 2009’s Magnolia, Matt Pond will never forsake studio time to work on what will be the next Matt Pond PA release. He has continued to serve up singles to his fans that are in anticipation for The Dark Leaves, the seventh installment from the band in a decade of existence. And, out with it he comes. Perhaps now suffering from album-by-album dittoing just as The Wooden Birds’ songwriter Andrew Kenny has been pronounced guilty of with his predecessive outfit American Analog Set, Matt Pond PA can’t seem to get over the lag.
It’s true that both artists have fingers in the same pie; the contraposition of brooding lyrics with crisp and sometimes lush chamber pop. While Kenny has done something to rejuvenate his songwriting by unplugging the guitar and enlisting harmonic female vocal support for his new project’s debut record, Pond hasn’t so much as changed a pair of socks since he left Mel’s Rock Pile to release Measure under the PA moniker in 2000.
The shades of green in Pond’s music are a little richer and a little bluer on The Dark Leaves. Sure, the plainly-titled “The Dark Leaves Theme” is stirring with its ‘love kills me’ chorus. Lovely still are the soft melodies, cello lines, and acoustic guitars of “Brooklyn Fawn” and “Winter Fawn”. The first two tracks “Starting” and “Running Wild” have Pond in vibrant display of his dexterous pop and melodic savvy. The cliffhanger “First Song” finishes out the record; its tempos akin to John Vanderslice-esque undulation.
The Dark Leaves is a pretty-sounding and rapt deliberation of love and longing twined in the dewed foliate textures of Pond’s nimble indie pop—not unlike all of the others he’s offered before. ‘You already know/what you don’t even know/read the cover, the flap/you just put it back’, he confesses on his appeal for support “Remains”. You can heed his warning if you want.
Starting - matt pond PA
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