Album Reviews

On the band’s twelfth album and apparent sequel to last year’s “Winter Lives”, Matt Pond PA sound decidedly upbeat and well, exactly like you want an album called “Still Summer” to sound.

There are wistful little arrangements (“Legends After The Fall”) and breezy ballads (“Street Squirrels”) which go hand in hand with the kind of songs that beg to be played loud with the windows rolled down (“Still Summer”, “Union Square”). The one thing they all have in common is nostalgia, a yearning for the time when you got to hang out with your friends all summer and do things like cannonball into a canal. That and the fact that they all sound amazing. Think Death Cab For Cutie without the downer vibe or The War On Drugs.

Throughout these fourteen tracks, Matt Pond, the frontman, founder and namesake, gets help from the likes of Laura Stevenson, Laura Burhenn, Caroline Reese and Anya Marina. And then there’s his regular crew, producer/guitarist Chris Hansen, Shawn Alpay, Mel Guerison and Kyle Kelly-Yahner. Together, they made a beautiful album, which makes it all the more bittersweet that this will likely be the last Matt Pond PA album. If it is… well, at least he left us with one last gorgeous collection of songs to swoon over.

Track listing:

1. A Spark
2. Street Squirrels
3. The Ballad of Laura and Mike (feat. Laura St...
4. Legends After the Fall
5. Still Summer
6. Rabbit
7. The Backyard
8. Canada (feat. Mel Guérison)
9. Legends Before the Fall
10. The Full Stop (feat. Caroline Reese)
11. Union Square
12. Back to the Future (feat. Anya Marina)
13. Last Breath (feat. Laura Burhenn)