The Green Fury

Album review

Capturing a mood caught somewhere between alert and energized and blissful, this release from the group known as Matt Pond PA serves as an introduction to confessional songwriting that shows that it need not all be self-indulgent. It's a detached record and yet it is earnest. For all of its heart-on-a-sleeve acoustic guitar strumming, there are string-laden majestic moments that manage to have a wider scope. Tracks like "City Plan" and "Promise the Bite" alternate between being spaced-out wonders and pop music gems. It's not that Matt Pond is necessarily that expressive as a singer, but in terms of expressing a mood -- melancholy laced with less than a tinge of sincerity -- this is where the record succeeds. There are recognizable indie rock elements here, but they are dolled up in tasteful orchestration. It's the sort of record that lends itself to accusations of being Baroque or grand in scope, but it is both of those things tactfully and humbly -- and not with any lavish adherence to any sort of pre-established code. It may be a Baroque sound, but it is not a revisionist sound. The Green Fury is somewhere between the Shins and the Cure's Disintegration, which -- as you might be able to guess -- is not a bad place to be.

© Jon Pruett /TiVo