Search - Matt Pond Pa :: Winter Songs

Excellent early year bonus Ep

The Swift Runner | Carmen Santiego, USA | 02/09/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I first came across Matt Pond PA with "Emblems", and I was hooked. While the sound is nothing particularly new (see 1980's-The Alarm, U2, The Cure, Echo & the Bunneymen), it is refreshing to hear someone redo it so well. Pond offers three new songs and four choice covers on this Ep. The best of the bunch are "Snow Day" and his cover of Lindsey Buckingham's "Holiday Road". If you grew up in the 80's, as I did, you will remember the latter from the first "Vacation" movie starring Chevy Chase. Good songwriters are traditionally good music fans as well, and Pond proves this with his decision to cover Richard and Linda Thompson's "I want to see the bright lights tonight" and Neutral Milk Hotel's "In the aeroplane over the see". While he can't quite reach the same high notes as Jeff Mangum, Pond does do a good job of manipulating the song to his own sound, adding some distant atmosphere to a song that was already captured in it. I would recommend this Ep to any fans of his previous work, as well as, fans of other covers albums and Eps such as Mark Lanegan's "I will take care of you", the Twilight Singers'"She loves you" and Crooked Fingers' "Reservoir Songs". With this much atmosphere there is no denying it now, this guy is going to be around a long time."