Pond
Man It Feels Like Space Again
CAROLINE
6/10
Australia’s Pond was born as a collaborative creative outlet for Tame Impala’s touring members Jay Watson and Nick Allbrook, along with Joseph Ryan. Now, four albums in—each featuring a revolving door of talented buddies to jam with—the spacey psych-rock group has successfully shed the “spin-off” stigma with the aptly titled Man It Feels Like Space Again. Pond’s latest LP is as confident a beast as you can find floating around the psychedelic garage-rock galaxy. Space Again’s individual tracks frequently stumble upon contrasting styles featuring raging guitar solos and fuzzed-out glitches, but the album’s out-of-this-world sonic thread is what ties the nine tracks together so nicely. There’s a steady buzz of stylized synth and calculated distortion—heard strongly within tracks like “Zond” and “Outside Is the Right Side”—that place the album firmly in the present. Space’s rock elements are driven, and the kaleidoscopic tones are woozy. Altogether, it’s a record that certainly sends your head spinning into the great infinity.
