Specifically: the rubbery R&B-pop of 2015’s shimmering, emotive Currents, a sound that fits Pond surprisingly well. Until now, any similarities between the two acts have been purely cosmetic-a colorful guitar doodle here, a widescreen synth-bomb there-but Tasmania marks the point in which Pond seem to be directly taking cues from Tame Impala. If you’ve made it this far into this review, you’re well aware that Pond shares a few members with the touring lineup of Tame Impala-godhead Kevin Parker has produced the Pond’s previous five albums, including Tasmania. But The Weather marked a point in the band’s decade-long career when their pop instincts-previously experienced in brief fits between static obscurities and the acoustic left-turn or two-approached the point of full bloom on Tasmania, Pond’s melodic gifts are as richly realized as the cherry blossoms name-checked in the album’s opening moments.
Through their career, the revolving-door outfit has reliably pumped out albums chock full of psych-rock featuring more twists and turns than a waterslide-the Aussie analogue to Ty Segall’s own dutiful commitment to acid-fried garage rock.
Growth comes in many forms, and the increasingly clued-in lyrical trajectory isn’t the only way in which Pond are changing. The band described their latest-which also marks their international major-label debut, on the perpetually alt-friendly Interscope-as a “sister album” to 2017’s zonked-out The Weather, an album that Allbrook described to NME as “laying out all the dark things underneath the shimmering exterior of cranes, development, money and white privilege.” This demonstration of social awareness is relatively new to Pond, a fact that Allbrook self-reflexively addresses over the oscillating synths of “Hand Mouth Dancer”: “So you got political, can you speak on that?/I didn’t get political, I just faced the facts.” Ideologically, it’s heavy stuff from a band who once wrote a song called “ Heroic Shart.”
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