Pond - Hobo Rocket

2013 (Matador)

Rating: 5

 

Review Summery: Doomed to forever be in grander shadows, Pond produce an adequate album drowned by its own mediocrity.





Look at the band line-up; its basically a slight variation of Tale Impala. How about the music, does Pond's latest release live up to the recently glowing stylings of their sister band? They are doomed to comparisons and a belittlement in stature as a so called 'side-project'. On their fifth album can Pond escape the shadow?

As you can see this album naturally asks these questions before the play button is even pressed. A review could go either way. You take 'Hobo Rocket' by itself, void of comparison and reviewed purely on its own personal merit and it is a reasonable contribution of the genre. You take 'Hobo Rocket' as 'the side project's latest release' and you will have no other urge than to press eject, slip in 'Lonerism' and forget this album ever existed. Your judgement now as a reviewer and as a listener is to take one of these forking paths. What is more important: respect of the work or one's own personal enjoyment? Isn't it the job of the work to dispel these comparisons and to avoid this criticism?

I am probably being rather harsh spending so much of this review discussing the subject. It does make the album sound far worse than it is in actual fact. 'Hobo Rocket' is more than passable, its an enjoyable experience. These aren't the most warming of words, but they are far from a condemnation. 'Lonerism' looming shadow would make many an album appear to be a failure. If Pond are forever doomed to melt into this shadow, I guess it is only courteous to give them a glimmer of a chance.

You listen to this album and the words that flood your brain are those of adequacy. It's almost impossible to get excited by the LP's trudging progression. It is a work that can be listened to without complaint yet forgotten as soon as the last note is played. Every song replaces the previous, banishing it the least travelled areas of the mind. You will never have the urge to revisit 'Hobo Rocket', yet a chance return will not be an unhappy one. Elements are beautiful and intriguing, but the overall feeling of mediocrity provides an ocean in which these unfortunately drown. Would I recommend this to you? No; but if you happen to stumble across it by the chance of fate, I hope you, as aforementioned, are courteous enough to give it a glimmer of a chance.