we interrupt your scheduled programming for a short review of an EP that seems even the band who made it have forgotten about.
2010's Greens Pool was released not too long after Frond, the day before christmas eve. it was limited to 300 physical copies of 7" vinyl, with each copy's cover art being a piece of a much bigger painting, making every copy unique!
you can see the making-of that here:
despite having been a pretty big Pond fan for a while, i did not know this EP existed until very late last year; and to be honest, how SHOULD i have known? there was quite literally never any mention of it. hell, the band's page on Spinning Top (their own record label) site doesn't even list it as one of their releases (also Psychedelic Mango is misspelled lol)
i only found out about it after scrolling through the band's discography page on wikipedia (WHICH DIDN'T EXIST UNTIL NOVEMBER LAST YEAR), where i noticed that there was a non-album single called "Greens Pool" that i haven't heard of before; and that's before the EP was listed like it is now.
anyways, pretty obscure thing, but i've introduced it to you now - what're its contents?
the 7" vinyl only contains the first two songs:
while the digital release on iTunes contains one more song called:
side tangent: you can still TECHNICALLY purchase this thing on iTunes, but as a person completely removed from the Apple ecosystem, i tried and proceeded to ram my head into
a wall for a good hour. even later, with the help of my brother who DOES have apple stuff, iTunes is so hilariously neglected and outdated that it took us FOOOOOOREVEEER to
actually buy the thing.
at least i got a good quality Cirrus White out of it! ^^
back on track: the first song, "Greens Pool" is quite possibly the most upbeat and light-hearted sounding song that Pond have released, it's very desperate, quite the unique sound for the band.
"Mind at Largening", on the other hand, is much more slow and mellow. it evokes the feeling of lying on your bed, weary, with individual sun beams sneaking through the crevices in your curtain blinds to rest on your face. while on DRUGS!!!!! PSYCHEDELIA BABY!!!!
the final track, "Cirrus White" is a very energetic song that makes me think of the beach with its peculiar guitars and boo-wop-wops. it is probably my favorite song off the EP. i particularly like the way the song ends, with it infinitely building up and up, until a high-pitched synthesizer comes in and phasers it all out.
all in all - Greens Pool is a solid EP. it's no HIDDEN GEM THAT MUST BE HEARD NO MATTER WHAT, but if you're a Pond fan like me, it's very interesting to hear these songs that, in the context of the band's work, are unique onto themselves. they're also catchy!
next up: Beard, Wives, Denim ...for real now