Matt Pond PA - Winter Songs

Genre rock Publisher Altitude Records External Links Official Site Altitude Records

Many songs and albums are praised for sounding like summer in music form; bouncy and cheery while the sun beams down overhead, letting you know that today is going to be a good day for dancing on the beach. Or something like that. Whilst I love this type of song (and really, who doesn't?), I also have a soft spot for their flipside, a kind of song that sounds crisp and cold. Instead of the beach, snow is falling, and the trees have icicles hanging from their branches. It may now be Spring, but Philadelphia-based Matt Pond PA's new EP, Winter Songs is a collection of six of these types of songs, all designed to make you yearn for a blanket and a mug of hot chocolate.

"Snow Day," the lead track, is a great example, capturing that Winter feeling with a squeaky guitar, a mournful cello, and a light dusting of icy keyboard sounds, all providing a melancholic, wistful air that the lyric reinforces: we "still lay awake hoping to hear airwaves / say snow day." It's sung in such a lovely, fragile way by Matt Pond, that you can't help thinking of all the days that you spent throwing snowballs at your friends, when getting a day of school was an important, celebratory event.

"Winterlong" is bracketed by two gentle guitar and keyboard instrumentals, "Fall Two" and "Winter One"; these are short and lovely, giving off a Manitoba/Caribou vibe. "Winterlong" itself is fairly unremarkable; female backup harmonies, a very familiar guitar sound, and even a cameo appearance by the "Be My Baby" drum beat. But for all that, it's still quite charming, like a cousin you only see at Christmas. "I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight" is, sadly, the cousin that stays with you all year round, refusing to go away. Endearing quirks become annoyances rather quickly; in this case, it's the rather dull and repetitive guitar riff that dominates the song. And I'm sure it doesn't make its bed in the morning.

Luckily, the record recovers very quickly, with two glorious covers to round off the proceedings. "Holiday Road," an old Fleetwood Mac song, is given an update, with a gorgeous and sparse melody played on the keyboard that just hovers in the background of the song like your breath on a cold day. Finally, the EP ends with a cover of Neutral Milk Hotel's "In The Aeroplane Over The Sea." It's a rather restrained version, made lush with the use of the cello (Eve Miller, the cellist, is on fine form all throughout, but she really shines here). While it doesn't reach the soaring heights of the original, it's still a wonderful cover.

Winter Songs is a great use of the EP format, sadly neglected too much these days. You can find, as you do here, a band playing with themes that wouldn't quite stretch to a full album, but require more space than what a single provides. More of them, I say! It may not be Winter any longer, but this is a wonderful collection of songs. Buy it now to bring down the temperature on a warm Spring day, and look forward to it warming your heart as November comes around again.