Pond - 9

Taking its cues more from the lip-smacking passion of their own ‘Sweep Me Off My Feet’ than the tight-lipped rock of 2019’s ‘Tasmania‘, Pond’s swaggering sixth studio album delivers a dose of camp, doe-eyed, psych-pop escapism. Peacocking its absurd levels of pomposity across a nine-song sequence, it’s hard not to raise smiles at its tongue-in-cheek forces. Take ‘Pink Lunette’ as a case in point: deranged beats are treated to lunatic yelps (“Screaming! Screaming! Screaming!”) to near comic intensity. Overflowing with glamour and sass, ‘9’ takes nothing by halves. From its pulsating chemical beats, gun-blast drums, sky-scouring riffs and vocal histrionics, every aspect is produced to cavernous proportions. It’s only at the record’s final hurrah that Pond reach for any restraint - the plaintive romance of closer ‘Toast’ rolls out a rarefied laid-back groove and dashes with remorseful reflection, most notably referencing last year’s Australian bushfires. Among its mix of roistering anthems and melodramatic balladry, ‘9’ exudes a supple confidence throughout, engaging in some of the most enthralling Australian psychedelia to emerge from 2021 (of which there is plenty).