Album Review: Pond - Man It Feels Like Space Again

Whether you’re listening to them on track shuffle or you’re smashing out an album, the best thing about Pond is that you never know what you’re going to get.

On their sixth full-length record, Man It Feels Like Space Again, the band master their psych-rock stylings in a more appealing manner than ever before, and each track adds a special ingredient that allows it to stand out from the rest. Sitting Up On Our Crane and Holding Out For You make for a couple of surprisingly blissful ballads, Elvis’ Flaming Star has this super funky bass line, and the band also make a successful effort to incorporate pop elements with catchy guitar riffs and drum beats in tracks like Outside Is The Right Side and Zond. Opener Waiting Around For Grace starts off like a lullaby, before signature Pond kicks in with their otherworldly FM-sounding force, while Heroic Shart is not-so-simply another reverb-drenched jam that the band have become so well known for. The dual-performing album title and final track is this soothing eight-minute journey that truly makes the title work for its name.

As a whole, the album seems more structured than their previous work, and it’s easier on the ear – it’s going to open up a whole world of potential new fans for Pond, and given the quality of the album, it’s a perfect time to do so. The rest of 2015’s releases are going to have a hell of a lot to live up to.