Pond’s Tasmania takes on the perils of climate change [Music Review]

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The Australian band’s eighth studio album isn’t afraid to take on hard-hitting global subjects

Chris Gillett |
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Pond frontman Nick Allbrook recently described their eighth studio album, Tasmania, as the “sister record” to 2017’s The Weather. From the opening belter Daisy, which sits alongside hits Paint Me Silver to sparkly summertime jam Sweep Me Off My Feet, you’d be forgiven for agreeing with this notion. But Tasmania soon takes a more eye-opening descent into current societal conversations – notably climate change.

Musically, Pond tread a sensual slow groove path with songs like Selene, The Boys Are Killing Me, and most notably Tasmania, where Allbrook’s lyrics cut through – “I might go shack up in Tasmania before the ozone goes/And paradise burns in Australia, who knows?” – before anthemic cries of “I want to breathe real air again” grow into a wall of sound.

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Where The Weather was full of brightness, though, this album gets more erratic as it develops. Goodnight PPC and Burnt Out Star move to glacial, transcendental cosmic soundscapes, before Shame creates a hard-hitting listen, beckoning, “Split me open and burn me in two/Hurry up and rain/Complete my day in shame”.

While Pond air their concerns for the world’s future under their usual guise of poignancy and flamboyancy, Tasmania feels like they’ve grown out of being an Australian band, and into their
own as a global one.

Edited by Ginny Wong 

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