Pony Face - Stars Are Bright
Sometimes, in the darkness, a little light shines.
On that day when we are supposed to celebrate what defines us as a nation, I stumbled upon the gem that has become a little legendary. Beside the pit in the Tote band room, Simon Bailey and his boys took me on a joy ride. It's been a while since that's occurred. Since I was taken by surprise. But Pony Face do not need an introduction. I wondered why it had taken me this long to make the time.
I don't compromise on what I love, so I bought the back catalogue of their original work. This album didn't take me as the others did at first listen, but after solid rotation on my car stacker I found stars are bright.
The most beautiful things reveal themselves slowly and have deep resonance. There are often so many things you sense, but cannot name. Pony Face describe whole heart landscapes in music. They present them visually and emotionally. They release them with empathy and as souls' catharsis. If you cannot feel it, you haven't been there. You cannot interpret what you cannot know.
Bailey and his team know how to break the intensity with unabashed realism. He'll reveal his nicks and scratches. He's not perfect. But he understands where he's been, and where he wants to go.
You have to listen to this record on a good stereo. There is so much subtlety that has so much nuance: if you miss it you miss the stars.
You can listen to the whole album here as you read.
The album opens with "Bermuda" that starts from an aural ellipsis reflected by a single note guitar vibrato. Pony Face play with the sinister, as well as the beautiful. The suspense of this introduction shimmers into a dark synthesised scape with bright points of light that draw you, in stereo, to Bailey's opening vocals, seaside. The bass lumbers like waves and the decided protagonist's lope, while the guitars play like moonlight on the water. There are ellipses in Bailey's lyrics too, which allow the metaphor and imagery to become personalised by the listener while he steers you from the shore. He conflates the conscious and subconscious, the sensory and the physical, which seem to define the Pony Face oeuvre. The musical mastery here is the multidimensional play on the intensity of presence and absence and the mystery of sensibility and what we know, but is difficult to describe. It is deftly and delicately handled throughout the deliciously long 8:28 delivery, and is pervasive up to the last guitars, as the silence closes down and becomes deafening in the right channel as it throbs out on the left.
The subtle and overt are played and suggested throughout the song and the album.
"Hardcore Dolphin Love" opens like a dawn on Bermuda as its lush coda. The play across the stereo opens us from the surrealism of those early morning hours, into what we know and don't expect about a new day. After the generous timing of Bermuda, Pony Face offer us the transition in what would be considered a standard song length. "Hardcore Dolphin Love" is also placed perfectly in the album as a preface for the everyday reality of "Mean Kid Song".
"Mean Kid Song" opens with sun-bleached musicality. The fade that comes with mundanity before Bailey's vocals open in contrast - so deep and warm. (Can someone please tell me how they swing the high hats through in stereo as it opens - again this is a great example of the time shift that occurs later in the song.) The guitar lines follow like the ghost emotions of the protagonist. Bailey introduces the Mean Kid antagonists from his present, to skillfully shift to his past when he finds the karma versing his purported calmer persona. The song transgresses time and describes the progression from then 'til now. Clarity is encapsulated in astute lyrics that tell of standardised contradictions between the "mean kids [who] can sleep through the night" as opposed to those that they antagonise. The fine work of "Mean Kid Song" is not only in the play of time and intention in the song itself, but where it is placed in the album to break the intensity. It demonstrates the band's breadth and diversity to evidence its craft, albeit in another form.
Is Bailey superstitious? I hazard a guess - yes. I could be wrong, but little superstition is a damn rich source. "Devil" builds naturally on the themes of "Mean Kid Song", but brings in a new dimension. Listen to how he sings the title. Deeply religious and superstitious people are going to know what I mean.
The title song stands on my Bandcamp page as my favourite on this album, but I actually have two. "Stars Are Bright" is unrequited. This relatively shorter song is perfectly balanced from the reciprocal opening and close. The lyrics capture so much with few words. Again, here is the beauty of Pony Face's work. Bailey's insight brings it home with such sweet relief at thirty-five seconds before the end of the track.
Pony Face know what they are doing. They weave the theme we heard from the first bars of the album again through the preface of "Anth's Dream". This time they bring in the melancholy and flannelette warmth of the harmonica. You can sit on the front porch and watch the sun go down.
Here, again, Pony Face bring it all together. "One or Another" opens with the lyrics, I had a dream. Damn, these boys have it down. The themes we have followed through the album so far are all coming together here. The lyrics have travelled. Do not underestimate the simplicity of Oh me, oh my. Who we are, what we should have, but what we do not.
Bailey knows how to keep you on an even keel. "Two Days" is a presented as bright easy road trip, but there is a worn and heavy theme through the song with a Springsteen-esque reminiscence. Again the contrasts - in lyrics, themes and musicality - are exquisite. And g'damn, the drumming from 35 seconds in just set the pace with incredible brilliance. Can I sit with the drummer in the back seat please? The bipolar, the shift of one thing between two, the seeming closeness, but stark difference are in sharp relief here, as they are as icon for the whole album.
"Hammer" stands like a regular metaphor in the lyrics, but again we journey through contrast under winter suns in slow motion with love and regret echoed in the delicious shiver of guitars. The soundtrack stands alone, it features and the lyrics accompany it. Listen closely to the spacial sparseness in the right channel versus the rich guitars in the left from 1:35 to 2:38. Here is another example of how Pony Face turn things around to show some of the most normal things are what you do not expect. "Hammer" as second-last song perfectly balances "Hardcore Dolphin Love", as second song in. Bailey surely takes his time to get it right.
"In This Room" is my other favourite. The opening crackle of a fire or a needle on the vinyl. They know how to link into those sensual loves that we haven't defined. And those deep sonic booms, Bailey's voice so far away as echo vocals, like the threat and comfort as the storm approaches ... opening finally at 2:36 like sun through the clouds. Silver and gold and black. The echo; the loop; Pony Face bring comfort but don't shy from the repetitious threat that will inevitably return.
The album, Stars Are Bright, is the best weekend you're going to have because it crystallises experiences. It is a standalone fine album because it is impeccably crafted with careful consideration to fine and immaculate detail.
This album is not Pony Face's latest, and it won't be their last. That's because they don't compromise on what they love.
You can get your own copy here.
If you read this a few weeks from now you are going to miss two important Pony Face moments in time: Catch them at their Justine launch this Friday, if you are in Melbourne; or put your money down where it counts at their Pozible campaign.
(Note: The song order as reviewed here is reflective of the download order and as listed on Bandcamp. The song order is different on the CD.)
On that day when we are supposed to celebrate what defines us as a nation, I stumbled upon the gem that has become a little legendary. Beside the pit in the Tote band room, Simon Bailey and his boys took me on a joy ride. It's been a while since that's occurred. Since I was taken by surprise. But Pony Face do not need an introduction. I wondered why it had taken me this long to make the time.
I don't compromise on what I love, so I bought the back catalogue of their original work. This album didn't take me as the others did at first listen, but after solid rotation on my car stacker I found stars are bright.
The most beautiful things reveal themselves slowly and have deep resonance. There are often so many things you sense, but cannot name. Pony Face describe whole heart landscapes in music. They present them visually and emotionally. They release them with empathy and as souls' catharsis. If you cannot feel it, you haven't been there. You cannot interpret what you cannot know.
Bailey and his team know how to break the intensity with unabashed realism. He'll reveal his nicks and scratches. He's not perfect. But he understands where he's been, and where he wants to go.
You have to listen to this record on a good stereo. There is so much subtlety that has so much nuance: if you miss it you miss the stars.
You can listen to the whole album here as you read.
The album opens with "Bermuda" that starts from an aural ellipsis reflected by a single note guitar vibrato. Pony Face play with the sinister, as well as the beautiful. The suspense of this introduction shimmers into a dark synthesised scape with bright points of light that draw you, in stereo, to Bailey's opening vocals, seaside. The bass lumbers like waves and the decided protagonist's lope, while the guitars play like moonlight on the water. There are ellipses in Bailey's lyrics too, which allow the metaphor and imagery to become personalised by the listener while he steers you from the shore. He conflates the conscious and subconscious, the sensory and the physical, which seem to define the Pony Face oeuvre. The musical mastery here is the multidimensional play on the intensity of presence and absence and the mystery of sensibility and what we know, but is difficult to describe. It is deftly and delicately handled throughout the deliciously long 8:28 delivery, and is pervasive up to the last guitars, as the silence closes down and becomes deafening in the right channel as it throbs out on the left.
The subtle and overt are played and suggested throughout the song and the album.
"Hardcore Dolphin Love" opens like a dawn on Bermuda as its lush coda. The play across the stereo opens us from the surrealism of those early morning hours, into what we know and don't expect about a new day. After the generous timing of Bermuda, Pony Face offer us the transition in what would be considered a standard song length. "Hardcore Dolphin Love" is also placed perfectly in the album as a preface for the everyday reality of "Mean Kid Song".
"Mean Kid Song" opens with sun-bleached musicality. The fade that comes with mundanity before Bailey's vocals open in contrast - so deep and warm. (Can someone please tell me how they swing the high hats through in stereo as it opens - again this is a great example of the time shift that occurs later in the song.) The guitar lines follow like the ghost emotions of the protagonist. Bailey introduces the Mean Kid antagonists from his present, to skillfully shift to his past when he finds the karma versing his purported calmer persona. The song transgresses time and describes the progression from then 'til now. Clarity is encapsulated in astute lyrics that tell of standardised contradictions between the "mean kids [who] can sleep through the night" as opposed to those that they antagonise. The fine work of "Mean Kid Song" is not only in the play of time and intention in the song itself, but where it is placed in the album to break the intensity. It demonstrates the band's breadth and diversity to evidence its craft, albeit in another form.
Is Bailey superstitious? I hazard a guess - yes. I could be wrong, but little superstition is a damn rich source. "Devil" builds naturally on the themes of "Mean Kid Song", but brings in a new dimension. Listen to how he sings the title. Deeply religious and superstitious people are going to know what I mean.
The title song stands on my Bandcamp page as my favourite on this album, but I actually have two. "Stars Are Bright" is unrequited. This relatively shorter song is perfectly balanced from the reciprocal opening and close. The lyrics capture so much with few words. Again, here is the beauty of Pony Face's work. Bailey's insight brings it home with such sweet relief at thirty-five seconds before the end of the track.
Pony Face know what they are doing. They weave the theme we heard from the first bars of the album again through the preface of "Anth's Dream". This time they bring in the melancholy and flannelette warmth of the harmonica. You can sit on the front porch and watch the sun go down.
Here, again, Pony Face bring it all together. "One or Another" opens with the lyrics, I had a dream. Damn, these boys have it down. The themes we have followed through the album so far are all coming together here. The lyrics have travelled. Do not underestimate the simplicity of Oh me, oh my. Who we are, what we should have, but what we do not.
Bailey knows how to keep you on an even keel. "Two Days" is a presented as bright easy road trip, but there is a worn and heavy theme through the song with a Springsteen-esque reminiscence. Again the contrasts - in lyrics, themes and musicality - are exquisite. And g'damn, the drumming from 35 seconds in just set the pace with incredible brilliance. Can I sit with the drummer in the back seat please? The bipolar, the shift of one thing between two, the seeming closeness, but stark difference are in sharp relief here, as they are as icon for the whole album.
"Hammer" stands like a regular metaphor in the lyrics, but again we journey through contrast under winter suns in slow motion with love and regret echoed in the delicious shiver of guitars. The soundtrack stands alone, it features and the lyrics accompany it. Listen closely to the spacial sparseness in the right channel versus the rich guitars in the left from 1:35 to 2:38. Here is another example of how Pony Face turn things around to show some of the most normal things are what you do not expect. "Hammer" as second-last song perfectly balances "Hardcore Dolphin Love", as second song in. Bailey surely takes his time to get it right.
"In This Room" is my other favourite. The opening crackle of a fire or a needle on the vinyl. They know how to link into those sensual loves that we haven't defined. And those deep sonic booms, Bailey's voice so far away as echo vocals, like the threat and comfort as the storm approaches ... opening finally at 2:36 like sun through the clouds. Silver and gold and black. The echo; the loop; Pony Face bring comfort but don't shy from the repetitious threat that will inevitably return.
The album, Stars Are Bright, is the best weekend you're going to have because it crystallises experiences. It is a standalone fine album because it is impeccably crafted with careful consideration to fine and immaculate detail.
This album is not Pony Face's latest, and it won't be their last. That's because they don't compromise on what they love.
You can get your own copy here.
If you read this a few weeks from now you are going to miss two important Pony Face moments in time: Catch them at their Justine launch this Friday, if you are in Melbourne; or put your money down where it counts at their Pozible campaign.
(Note: The song order as reviewed here is reflective of the download order and as listed on Bandcamp. The song order is different on the CD.)
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