Nick Allbrook’s psychedelic Perth band Pond are quietly stealing the scene from under their parent band Tame Impala’s psychotropic snout. Since Allbrook left Tame in 2013 to concentrate on his Pond offshoot, they’ve released last year’s invigorating psych-glam-pop mash Hobo Rocket album – featuring a real-life babbling hobo – and now hone their pop credentials on this expansive crossover of a sixth album.
Sure, a record that includes titles such as Elvis’ Flaming Star, Zond and – ahem – Heroic Shart is aiming firmly at left-field stoner obscurity, but Man It Feels Like Space Again is the first Pond record that could appeal to your intrigued pop niece and acid-demented hippie grandmother in equal measure.
An unfailingly sparkling album melodically, it takes in hazy phase disco on Outside Is The Right Side, tinny country majesty on Medicine Hat, operatic ELO wooziness on the eight-minute title track and glorious glam-fuzz on Waiting Around For Grace.
Elvis’ Flaming Star is a 60s go-go shimmy across Venus, Holding Out For You is a beautiful Beck ballad floating in a tin can and even Heroic Shart trumps along on a trouser-fillingly terrific hook.
It’s the record that finally fulfils all of the promise of MGMT’s debut Oracular Spectacular, even while MGMT themselves struggle./o:p
