Pile Of 8 (3/8): Matt Pond PA

You thought I forgot about this Pile of 8 thing, didn’t you? Well, I didn’t. I just suffer from a lack of focus.

But I got home today and despite having alot of things to do (watch Matrix Reloaded, read the article on Apple in FORTUNE magazine), I decided I had to write this entry. Don’t ask me why. Okay, here it goes.

To be honest, I was pleasantly surprised by Matt Pond. I know we say we shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover, but I did anyway (but that’s because I appreciate good album art (I’ll listen to shitty music if the album art is good (see Asia)). Anyway, the cover (see above) seemed to be saying ‘sleep with me, I recorded an album’. So I didn’t expect much. But Jeff mentioned in passing if I’d given it a listen, and we all know I more-or-less trust Kim’s musical opinion. So while washing dishes I put it on (there was alot to wash (I made guacamole (see previous post)).

The first song –Last Light– is unoffensive (as is the whole album) enough to be enjoyable, but works well as a bridge to the second track which I actually quite liked. People Have A Way has an 80’s trip rock sound that works and maybe it’s because I’d been listening to David Bowie earlier and Modern Love and Lets Dance had been playing that incestual (not a word) beat that you realize you like for some reason, despite feeling like you shouldn’t.

There’s some good songs here. Honestly (the 5th track) and it’s lyrics ‘I believe someday I hope I will believe’ -That’s good. That’s clever.  This is probably the track I liked most.  And ‘honesty’ is a good subject. It’s one of the most basic moral issues everyone of any stage can relate to (and something we all can agree upon (see Ex-Govenor Spitzer)). Sometimes, the song Honesty by Billy Joel makes me sad.

There’s some good stuff here. But 13 tracks is alot and it starts to get familiar/bit annoying fast. I shut it off by track 7 and was daunted with how much more I had to listen. I was worried that my penis might not make it that far cause this is pretty castrating music.   I only finished listening to it today.  Apparently Matt Pond has been around awhile.  And there’s probably a lot of discs there and alot of songs to go through.  Oy.

So to review…

Some good tracks. Nice vocals. Nice instruments. Well produced. Incentuous. Might make your penis fall off. But hey, in this crazy world, this will probably end up working in their favor.

Here’s their website: www.mattpondpa.com

And their myspace: www.myspace.com/mattpondpa

Tags: last light, matt pond, nyc, review