With the album due this autumn, Pony Girl have now returned with brand new single, ‘I Believe in Nothing’. A song which again faces up to the demoralising truths of reality without internalising the consequences, opting instead to allow the related thoughts and emotions to merely run off their backs. “Everything is absurd and meaningless, but that’s a positive,” as the band explain. “‘I Believe In Nothing’ is a mantra for detachment, for releasing yourself of strong emotions, for taking control of your life.” The mood is brought to life with the outfit’s distinctively colourful art pop style, building towards a triumphant crescendo which soars high above any strife. Check out the video below, with animation from Shiyi Li:

Laff It Off is out on the 27th October via Paper Bag Records and you can pre-order it now from the Pony Girl Bandcamp page.

Photo by François Mittins, art direction and design by Pascal Huot

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If you need convincing that this is true, first track ‘Mother Nature’ serves as the perfect introduction. It sounds like it was made for kids to freak out to in their bedrooms, to bop around and forget that they didn’t get invited to that party before their parents start yelling to kill the volume. The lyrics also establish the deeper themes of the album, namely bored and lonely young people falling in love with each other – “wednesday night with nothing to do / I got a bottle of wine and few screws loose, it’s cool / cause honey you do too”. ‘Narcissus’ is pretty self-explanatory, a riff on C21st vanity which opens with the line “I am obsessed with myself, cos no one else is”. The shuffling instrumentation on ‘Heroine’ is understatedly infectious, eventually smashing into life with a kick against the follies and fallacies of men:

“he thinks slumming it is where it’s at
asks if I’ve read Kerouac
hand on thigh, the line is blurred
‘you’re so cute, you don’t need words’
I guess that’s why I don’t trust men
because it’s always about the hero
not the heroine”

BB Cream know how to write a smart pop song, the balance between spiky and catchy is consistently pitch-perfect. ‘Good Girl’ is both a college love song and a lament on the difficulties of being a girl (what Why describes as “the brunette nice girl glasses curse”), and ‘6 Dog’ is about having a crush on an older indie rock star “my friend says you look like how listening to Weezer sounds, and I get so excited when your band plays in my town.”

‘See You in the Next Life’ sees Grunsky pass the drums to Brownlee, pick up a guitar and join in with vocals, the track a love song that refuses to be unrequited, even if it takes several lifetimes to work out. ‘Pool Hall’ blooms like a long lost classic pop song, less hectic than much of the record, the lyrics dealing with the miscommunication of young love/unlove. “And I know you think I hate you, but I don’t / I’m just learning how to love myself”. The whole slow and considered thing doesn’t last long though, as next up is ‘Do U Wanna’, a bona fide pop gem. Brownlee’s tambourine gives things a jangly clap-a-long feel, the lyrics following the by-now familiar theme of pining for somebody’s affections, wrapped up in a sweet naivete and a jagged punky edge.

“And its getting kinda late
and I think you’re kinda great
do u wanna
are you gonna
dance with me
like I wanna”

Closer ‘Marc Bolan’ is slightly slower and more sedate, a song that transcends the crushes referenced on the other tracks, unveiling a sense of pure devotion. It eventually gathers in pace, as if its brakes have failed, the whole thing careening downhill to a manic finale.

BB Cream is a really great album, it’s fun and infectious and has enough sloppy  rock ‘n roll to still sound super cool turned way up on headphones. It’s not exactly pure escapism either, not shying away from anxieties but rather confronting them head-on, suggesting jiving around like the awkward idiot you probably are as the perfect cure.

You can get BB Cream on a name-your-price basis via Bandcamp.

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Here are a few examples: ‘Cycle Frenzy’ brings to mind Vampire Weekend, ‘House Torn Down’ the Dirty Projectors, and ‘Stimulation’ is like an amalgamation of the two. ‘Caricature’ channels the cheesy rock of Queen to become something akin to Fang Island with the speed turned down, while ‘Procreator’ has the smallest hint of Father John Misty’s style of first-person narration. ‘Common Sense Revolution’ takes a jazzy approach, preaching the importance of common sense amongst the pretentious and self-righteous members of the intelligentsia, sauntering toward the final refrain:

“Teachers need more common sense,
doctors need more common sense,
lawyers need more common sense,
authors (?) need more common sense,
physicists need more common sense,
biologists need more common sense,
sociologists need more common sense,
climatologists need more common sense”

This, in essence, captures the message of the whole album. Estan are raging against the pompous nature of professionals and academics, the title highlighting just how ridiculous we are to think we can assign logic to a universe of chaos far too big for our tiny heads. But rather than taking the nihilist approach and essentially giving up, Beedell celebrates this fact, taking great joy in the unpredictable, irrational and thoroughly interesting accumulation of phenomena that is a humankind. So rather than spending time sorting things into clearly-designated boxes (and sorting the boxes into bigger boxes, etc.), why not strap in and open your eyes to the magical and unknowable world around you?

You can buy The Vanity of Reason now via the Estan Bandcamp page, and it is out on vinyl via Famous Last Records.

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Mattson has just announced a new EP, Avalanche, which picks up directly where Someday left off. That said, the first track sees a significant departure from his sound, swapping out the Wooden Sky-style indie rock for gently strummed guitars and slow-burning drum machine beats which conjure a vivid, nostalgic image, like a city as seen from a dark shore at night.

Avalanche will be released on the 21st August by Home Music Co. If you haven’t already, be sure to head to the Kalle Mattson Bandcamp page and pick up his previous albums.

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Watchful Creatures is the sort of album that is difficult to pin down as any specific genre. The opening two tracks are quite poppy, fast-paced with an upbeat tone, sparking the record to life and channeling bands like Spoon.

‘The Later Ones’ sees the album take a slower turn, with the focus shifting to Hynes’ vocals and the thumping drums. This continues through to ‘Forever, Kathleen,’ a sad song about loss that is topped off by a triumphant brass section that gives things a celebratory feeling, capturing that weird sense of melancholy and pride that constitues grief (as an aside, the general tone and themes bring to mind this Frederick Squire song). Hynes sings:

“Is this how you saw yourself now?
Showing your heartache in the dead of the night
It’s one for the past
Your life moved so fast
And I’ll never forget you, Kathleen

Tell me all the thoughts you had
My dreams don’t even touch yours I know
When I kneel down you don’t even frown
I see you and it kills me, Kathleen”

Just when you thought the album was about to settle in a folky groove, it changes once more. ‘Opinion Piece,’ my current favourite, is a slow-burner that builds up into the cathartic refrain “you had a lie for everyone,” with a collection of backing vocalists (including members of Hey Rosetta!) providing that rousing group chorus. Samples and ambient music are used in ‘One More, California’ add another dimension and create that sense of wistful longing that develops about a place you romanticise.

Overall, this is an interesting album that defies the usual categorisation, incorporating the best bits from a range of sources to create something that will both get your feet moving and your soul hurting (in a good way). Maybe Hynes’s time with other bands has helped him develop a well-rounded musical palatte?

The album is out now on Shuffling Feet Records, who are putting together quite a roster.

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Two songs are currently available to sample, both of which featured on a 7″ Mattson released earlier this year. Opener ‘An American Dream’ is all crashing drums and triumphant trumpets and has a really nice singalong chorus

The second, ‘Darkness’ is a more muted affair but still has a real energy. The album was produced by Gavin Gardiner of The Wooden Sky, and it is on ‘Darkness’ that his influence really becomes apparent.

You can pre-order the album in a variety of guises right now over at Mattson’s Bandcamp page. I’d suggest you seriously consider it because this is shaping up to be a good one. Also, if you can’t wait until the February release, why not check out his past releases?

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