Garett Press
11/30/05, 01:09 PM
Matt Pond PA – Several Arrows Later
{SCORE: 7.7/10}
Jingle jangle, a term that materializes between my ears as the buzzing, warm opening notes of Several Arrows Later jump anxiously from my otherwise lifeless gray headphones. There’s an interesting contrast here on “Halloween.” By all means this song should feel like a warm weather anthem but in true fashion of a record released while leaves are dead and withering, the verses appear to be weighed down by the petulant violins. It strikes me that Matt would choose to simmer this otherwise buoyantly joyous pot with such a heavy undertone, until I begin to process the lyrics. “Went to where the people were on a Saturday night/Seems like it always seems, where we go I want to leave/Thought we were doin’ fine with our lives/There are people who will tell ya’ there is always something better.” This is so… bleak, but the keyboard riff immediately following makes me want to run around in a grassy field? My first instinct tells me that the music and the lyrics just don’t align, but then I’m hit with a revelation… I’ve felt this way before.
This juxtaposition of tempo, tone, and topic is exactly the art that Mr. Pond has so clearly perfected. Sounding tried and true, he sings with what I would describe as eager melancholy. Oxymoron? No… instead, a man weathered by all the pitfalls of life but with a genuine sense of what it means to feel good. Haven’t you ever walked away from an instance in life with a knot in your stomach and kink in your neck only to be greeted by good news and the hug of a cool breeze? If I had to guess I’d infer that these “everything’s gonna be okay” moments play a largely affective role, consciously or not, in the songwriting of our boy from Pennsylvania. Again and again, there’s this sense of delight begging to break through like sunshine through the clouds, and perhaps that’s what makes the chorus of title track “Several Arrows Later” flow through your veins and bubble in your blood. This notion of suppressed elation is widely infectious and when it does in fact poke its golden head through the jail cell bars of tribulation and glum, the payoff is well worth the wait, and then some.
The record as a whole lacks a true climax or a 24 karat gold hit, though many tracks will delight, but easily holds together as a heady conglomerate of pleasurable tunes and top notch musicianship. As well, the disc also doesn’t boast much by way of replay value, but for each interval of listening, it will satisfy indefinitely. If you dig any of the other headliners in this currently fashionable popular-indie genre (DCFC, Decemberists, Arcade Fire), Matt Pond PA better be the author of the next Mp3 to pop up when you shuffle your iPod library. Very right for a season known as Fall, and very worthy of your time on every account. You might just find yourself relating to Matt’s intriguing musical perspective of veiled optimism, or maybe you’ll just think I’m an over-analytical bastard. Regardless, check it out.
{SCORE: 7.7/10}
Jingle jangle, a term that materializes between my ears as the buzzing, warm opening notes of Several Arrows Later jump anxiously from my otherwise lifeless gray headphones. There’s an interesting contrast here on “Halloween.” By all means this song should feel like a warm weather anthem but in true fashion of a record released while leaves are dead and withering, the verses appear to be weighed down by the petulant violins. It strikes me that Matt would choose to simmer this otherwise buoyantly joyous pot with such a heavy undertone, until I begin to process the lyrics. “Went to where the people were on a Saturday night/Seems like it always seems, where we go I want to leave/Thought we were doin’ fine with our lives/There are people who will tell ya’ there is always something better.” This is so… bleak, but the keyboard riff immediately following makes me want to run around in a grassy field? My first instinct tells me that the music and the lyrics just don’t align, but then I’m hit with a revelation… I’ve felt this way before.
This juxtaposition of tempo, tone, and topic is exactly the art that Mr. Pond has so clearly perfected. Sounding tried and true, he sings with what I would describe as eager melancholy. Oxymoron? No… instead, a man weathered by all the pitfalls of life but with a genuine sense of what it means to feel good. Haven’t you ever walked away from an instance in life with a knot in your stomach and kink in your neck only to be greeted by good news and the hug of a cool breeze? If I had to guess I’d infer that these “everything’s gonna be okay” moments play a largely affective role, consciously or not, in the songwriting of our boy from Pennsylvania. Again and again, there’s this sense of delight begging to break through like sunshine through the clouds, and perhaps that’s what makes the chorus of title track “Several Arrows Later” flow through your veins and bubble in your blood. This notion of suppressed elation is widely infectious and when it does in fact poke its golden head through the jail cell bars of tribulation and glum, the payoff is well worth the wait, and then some.
The record as a whole lacks a true climax or a 24 karat gold hit, though many tracks will delight, but easily holds together as a heady conglomerate of pleasurable tunes and top notch musicianship. As well, the disc also doesn’t boast much by way of replay value, but for each interval of listening, it will satisfy indefinitely. If you dig any of the other headliners in this currently fashionable popular-indie genre (DCFC, Decemberists, Arcade Fire), Matt Pond PA better be the author of the next Mp3 to pop up when you shuffle your iPod library. Very right for a season known as Fall, and very worthy of your time on every account. You might just find yourself relating to Matt’s intriguing musical perspective of veiled optimism, or maybe you’ll just think I’m an over-analytical bastard. Regardless, check it out.