Album Review: 9 by Pond

Released in 2019, that record showcased the band working to their fullest potential, with their customary psych-pop now featuring aspects of electronic, funk and jazz music, resulting in a kind of plastic soul/sophisti-pop update to their once shaggy-rock sound. The band - Nick Allbrook, Jay "Gumby" Watson, Shiny Joe Ryan, Jamie Terry, and James Ireland - have been together long enough for these shifts in texture, tone and mood to be second nature. This ain't their first rodeo.

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Inventively titled 9, Pond's ninth studio album was shaped differently to their others. Claiming they deserved a shot at chucking something together from lengthy jamming sessions where tracks were gradually moulded into songs after the release of several highly polished collections may be fair enough, but without Tame Impala's Kevin Parker on mixing duties for the first time in over a decade, the sheen is missing, and the free rein clearly showing. Frontman Nick Allbrook wanted to create something "completely fucked" as he "loves divisive music"; accordingly, 9 is guaranteed to split opinion if you're a die-hard fan of the Australian band's thick layer of psychedelia and fuzzy warped production that Parker encouraged when around.

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