Record Club covered this album exactly five years ago. I gave it another listen this week. Here are some thoughts.
Man It Feels like Space Again
Pond
Week 29: August 18-24, 2019
The temptation is to look at the past five years of you life and say: holy shit, it's all changed so much. And in many respects, that is true. I look around my life and I marvel at all the changes, both good and bad, both big and small, that have occurred from 2019 through 2024. Trying to put myself back into August 2019 is an impossible task, so far away is it from my current situation.
And yet, when I listen to this album, and think about what my life looked like through this very specific lens, it's remarkable how consistent everything is. I still listen to this album and hold the same opinion, even after x number of additional listens over the half-decade. The majority of it stands as boilerplate psych-rock noise, but with obvious highs so high that they mostly even out any negative perception I might have of it. I'm thinking about the "Woo!" that opens the album. I'm thinking about the freakout in "Outside Is the Right Side." I'm thinking about the crunchy and propulsive rhythm of "Zond." That's three easy highlights right there. 3.5 pukes is probably a little high for this, but I think a 3 pukes out of 5 grade is appropriate for an extremely average and unoriginal album with a few great songs.
Something else that's consistent is the structure and expectations of Record Club. There are rules, and it's taboo to break those rules. And, during the Pond week, we had our second instance of one of the golden rules being broken, which is something I always remember when I hear this album. The person who chose the album didn't write a review! Which was shocking then, and shocking now, and I am pretty sure that this is what made me codify that previously implied rule. If you pick an album, you have to review that album.
I guess the difference between the Connie Converse debacle and this one is that I've hung out with Mandy a few times in the past five years. Not often, I'd say, but maybe three times a year, and definitely to the point that I feel comfortable texting her and seeing if she's around to hang out. And I still consider her a close enough friend that I feel comfortable busting her balls about not writing her goddamn Pond review.
So regarding Pond, nothing has changed, not even the fact that I'm still sitting here listening to this band and texting Mandy and asking her to write a review for Man It Feels like Space Again. Will she actually write it this time? She said via text that she would. But that's what was said in 2019 as well, and we still see the egg dripping off my face. As of this writing, I do not know if I will receive a review. I think it's going to be a funny bit if she writes it five years late. Unless you are reading this post in the six o'clock hour on Friday morning, you'll already know whether her review is published or not.
I have faith in Mandy because I have faith in our friendship. And also, I am fully aware, and always have been, of the idea that Record Club is not the most important thing in the world. I am not "waiting around for grace," because I already have the grace and understanding needed to run an album-of-the-week club over the internet in the year 2024. I feel that this exercise is extremely important to me, and it seems important to a few other people, but the vast majority of humans, and the vast majority of my friends, are going to keep it way, way down on their priority list. Friendship means knowing this, and finding peace in that idea.
So to all those who still owe me an album review—Drew P. for Connie Converse, Pat for II, Dranders for II and for Jailbreak, and maybe or maybe not Mandy for Man It Feels like Space Again—please know that I value our friendship dearly, and do not hold it against you that you did not write the review you were supposed to write, and, most importantly, if I ever get your review in my email inbox on some day in the near or far future, I will feel not relief, but pure, unadulterated joy, and will celebrate the chance to read your words and opinions. Thanks in advance.
The more things change, the more they stay the same. The maxim has never been truer than it is now with this Pond album. Man, it feels like Man It Feels like Space Again again.
I guess the difference between the Connie Converse debacle and this one is that I've hung out with Mandy a few times in the past five years. Not often, I'd say, but maybe three times a year, and definitely to the point that I feel comfortable texting her and seeing if she's around to hang out. And I still consider her a close enough friend that I feel comfortable busting her balls about not writing her goddamn Pond review.
So regarding Pond, nothing has changed, not even the fact that I'm still sitting here listening to this band and texting Mandy and asking her to write a review for Man It Feels like Space Again. Will she actually write it this time? She said via text that she would. But that's what was said in 2019 as well, and we still see the egg dripping off my face. As of this writing, I do not know if I will receive a review. I think it's going to be a funny bit if she writes it five years late. Unless you are reading this post in the six o'clock hour on Friday morning, you'll already know whether her review is published or not.
I have faith in Mandy because I have faith in our friendship. And also, I am fully aware, and always have been, of the idea that Record Club is not the most important thing in the world. I am not "waiting around for grace," because I already have the grace and understanding needed to run an album-of-the-week club over the internet in the year 2024. I feel that this exercise is extremely important to me, and it seems important to a few other people, but the vast majority of humans, and the vast majority of my friends, are going to keep it way, way down on their priority list. Friendship means knowing this, and finding peace in that idea.
So to all those who still owe me an album review—Drew P. for Connie Converse, Pat for II, Dranders for II and for Jailbreak, and maybe or maybe not Mandy for Man It Feels like Space Again—please know that I value our friendship dearly, and do not hold it against you that you did not write the review you were supposed to write, and, most importantly, if I ever get your review in my email inbox on some day in the near or far future, I will feel not relief, but pure, unadulterated joy, and will celebrate the chance to read your words and opinions. Thanks in advance.
The more things change, the more they stay the same. The maxim has never been truer than it is now with this Pond album. Man, it feels like Man It Feels like Space Again again.
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