Matt Pond PA
The Ballad of Natural Lines
(131 Records)
Kingston-based band Matt Pond PA’s album The Ballad of Natural Lines is reflective of a hazy Hudson Valley sound: Something not precisely defined, but some collision of country twang, nature-inspired subject matter, and the aesthetic of the cheap-beer enjoyer of the hipster variety. Much of this comes together on the release, where charm and awkwardness are happily joined. It’s a feat of organization, with 13 musicians, three engineers, and three recording studios involved. The result is like a stuffed suitcase, zipped up by leader Matt Pond, whose namesake band supports him in his earnest vocals with muscular drums, piercing guitars, and liquid strings. The title track sets a happy-go-lucky tone, but with a hint of reflective melancholy and a polished, pop-rock chorus. On “Connecticut,” the dissecting of the title through witty wordplay gives the song a sardonic tilt, riding on the sharp edge of a forward-driving pulse.
Everything changes with “The Clivia in the Living Room,” an instrumental interlude where, despite the album’s high production value, brings back a crackle, a certain graininess that’s often buffed out in more produced music. It’s something you don’t realize you miss until you hear it again, which, coincidentally, is the sonic feeling of this tender tone poem. After the spikier instrumental “Number 9000,” the second half of the album starts sunsetting. The brooding and downtempo “Musik Express,” despite having repeated lines, abandons traditional song structure and reads like a confessional monologue. Just before you’re lulled into sleep with the somniferous “Risky Business,” the album goes out with the dusky “Winged Horse.”
This article appears in June 2025.
A request: Rather than linking to skeevy Spotify, which simply exploits the less-than-famous, link to the Bandcamp site for the album.
People can still hear the music, but they also have the option to buy it, a a much, much better deal for the artist than the fraction of pennies from Spotify.