by DJ Cheeto
Dreamy yet introspective, enlightening yet fun, on March 1st 2019 Pond released their newest album called Tasmania. Opening up with the song called Daisy, Pond introduces listeners with a pensive and relaxing first few minutes before it progresses into an energetic pop feel which momentarily lets me forget that I haven’t seen the sun in a few days. Not only has Pond released another psychedelic rock album that experiments with elements of pop, techno, and even funk, but they have also come to a revelation in their 8th album: That the world is melting and Pond’s singer Nick Allbrook is completely fixated on this reality.
In their song Tasmania, Pond focuses on some inner reflection regarding the stress of daily life, an out-of-reach love interest, and the never-ending feeling of helplessness regarding the Earth’s crumbling atmosphere: “I might go shack up in Tasmania while the ozone goes and paradise burns in Australia”. While Allbrook’s poetic lyricism is nothing short of sincerity and solemnity, the song remains to be addicting to listen to from the sleepy sound of wind chimes along with Jamie Terry’s use of bass. Then, in the song Burnt Out Star, which was produced by the help of Kevin Parker, Allbrook repeats the same line regarding our depleting ozone layer and stating again, “paradise burns in Australia”. The outro of Burnt Out Star develops into some kind of epiphany that Allbrook has in terms in the fate of our future and some fixation on the city of Jakarta. The obscurity and mystery of Jakarta’s involvement in Burnt Out Star is up for listeners to interpret, which is often an element in the world of psychedelia.
In Sixteen Days, Allbrook asks, “While the whole world melts, am I just meant to watch?”. This powerful line in Tasmania summarizes the bewilderment of what our world’s future will be in terms of its environmental fate. Though their newest album provides a bittersweet perspective on the reality of the Earth’s destiny, Pond remains to capture the audience with new and experimental yet tranquilizing music that leaves listeners maybe a little bit more conscious about our environment.