"let's stop being dumb", said God on the 3rd day.
2010's Frond is divine intellect. to paraphrase the story behind it, pond's members were essentially like "ok, nobody's taking us seriously, let's prove we can write competent pop songs." ...and so they did!
it is their first attempt at... uh... i guess actually trying to make an album with any sort of structure.
this is really where that iconic (to me) "pond sound", reminiscent of that which would later be present on The Weather and such - finally starts to show itself. tired of the freeform amorphous goo that's been expected of them so far, pond's sound on Frond leans in a more poppy direction. like, there are now VERSES! and CHORUSES! ...WOW!
but fret not (or keep fretting, idk), it is still psychedelic goodness! the goo never went anywhere, it's contained within now. on every stable and pristine construct, there are cracks, mold and graffiti on it to give it texture.
though this unfamiliar, new direction does bring some drawbacks - some songs can get a bit jarringly repetitive, such as "Annie Orangetree", though that is an extreme example. this isn't to say that it doesn't succeed elsewhere, example being the concise 2-minute instrumental, "The Place Behind A Duck", perfectly filtering the signature jammy craziness of psychedelic rock into something more digestible, without making it boring.
i don't think i can go without saying that the production on this album is much, MUCH cleaner than the low fidelity DIY mixing and mastering of the first two albums. and though I never found the lo-fi sound of those albums as an issue, i know that, for some people, a lot of the enjoyment of them is ruined through that, even if they do actually like the core of the songs themselves... so, it's nice that they decided to buy a microphone for this one.
and of course, although now present, the songwriting is STILL not quite there yet. despite being tucked full of words, most of the lyrics on Frond still offer do not offer much in terms of meaning. take this excerpt from "Duck And Clover":
"Duck and clover
Tracks left in my mind
I feel I travel to a place where the sky is purple
And the trees all sway from side to side"
this means nothing.
...whatevz, it still sounds coooool. and at least it's intelligible... most of the time.
highlights on Frond for me include:
"Cloud City",
"Torn Asunder",
"Duck And Clover",
"Mussels Tonight?",
and my favorite, the grand eponymous closer,
"Frond".
"Cloud City", interestingly enough, is actually present as a single on most streaming services, as the lone song from Frond! it sounds extremely like what they would go on to do on Hobo Rocket, if a little more light-hearted... probably why it's there.
"Torn Asunder", is very calm and distant at first. mystique colors the sonic waves bouncing from your audio-emitting device of choice into your ears... until eventually, all but the acoustic guitar and flute goes quiet, then everything eventually rises back up, more powerful than before... and then- BY THE THUUUNDEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR AND THE RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"Duck And Clover" (clough-ver) is the heaviest song on the album, and probably the most "traditionally heavy" song pond has released. it is a very nice trip through trees of angsty vocals, and heavy but woozy paths which the guitars have marked.
"Mussels Tonight?" feels like the essence of this album to me, like the median of everything it has to offer. it's also just a good song.
"Frond" is the album's conclusion, piano-heavy, with a vocoder voice leading the softer parts... until...
an epic choir comes in with immense power backed by a lone electric guitar that sings along to the moment, as one.
once the choir and the vocoder are done, the rest of the song is a long piano solo, lasting about 4 minutes. what a powerful finish.
concluding now! Frond is often considered the "first real pond album", and i can see why. if you're a little grinch you can say "ohhh those other two albums those were just
ummm syd barrett era pink floyd and cream" (which i disagree with and also hate you), not so much with this one. there is finally some form, something more than psychedelic
idiocy. dare
i say, something TRULY unique. the artist is no longer conforming to the genre, at least not as much, the path to the summer bloom is open.
now, they must tread down it.
next up: Beard, Wives, Denim ...or is it?