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ESSENTIAL NEW MUSIC

Essential New Music: Pond’s “The Weather”

Pond’s most endearing and admirable quality is also one with the potential to drive listeners nuts. The Perth, Australia, quartet’s seventh album displays a shape-shifting skill in the way it imperceptibly slinks between chintzy romantic electro-pop and progressive rock with ties to Genesis and Yes. Sometimes the band ramps up the frustration by integrating fleeting, Instragram-approved hipster club music into meditations on music proven more epic and timeless within the confines of a single song (“Edge Of The World Pt. 1,” “AB”). Other times you’ll be wondering when the band jumped on the synthwave bandwagon (“30,000 Megatons”), which shootout scene of which ’80s cop show you’re watching or how sloppy garage guitars play into the for- mula. This varying approach does render certain moments ineffective or quizzical, depending on your viewpoint, but the variety of The Weather definitely offers some spice to lives.

—Kevin Stewart-Panko