BARDO POND
Volume 9
FIRE
7/10
Philly psych veterans unveil a mid-’00s anti-war epic
Now upgraded to vinyl from the group’s CDR series of archive jams, Volume 9 begins with “Conjunctio”, whose pretty acoustic guitar drones, feedback symphonies and feral flute combine in pastoral psychedelia suggesting late-era Sonic Youth. The album’s centrepiece is the 24-minute “War Is Over”, taped in one evening with drummer Mike Zanghi, soon to join fellow Philadelphians Kurt Vile and The War On Drugs. Recorded around the time of Bardo Pond’s sludge submersion of The Beatles’ “Cry Baby Cry” on Ticket Crystals (2006), the instrumental borrowed another Lennon mantra as the Iraq War peaked. It seems to enact peace in its ritualistic repetitions, gracefully rotating guitar figures and dislocating length, while electric guitar skirls sprout from drones and Isobel Sollenberger plays hillbilly viola. Maybe the title followed the jam. It still seems a psychedelic prayer, paralleling M Ward’s Post-War (2006) as it processes the times, its case spoken by the love rising from the group’s communal playing.
NICK HASTED
BIG THIEF
Masterpiece (reissue, 2016)
4AD
8/10
Big Thief’s brilliant debut, remastered
While they proclaimed it was an act of humility, there was always something impressively bold about Big Thief naming their debut album way back in 2016. For most listeners, this was their first introduction to Adrienne Lenker’s slippery style of songwriting, even though she had been recording with guitarist Buck Meek for some time. originally came out on Saddle Creek but now gets a remastered release on 4AD, the band’s current home. The title track – second on the album – is the first indication of Big Thief’s talent, a song that offers a rousing singalong chorus and thick guitars but deft lyrics and a beguiling melody. Later comes the proclamatory “Real Love” and the powerful double bill of “Lorraine” and “Paul”, the former impressionistic and deceptively slight, the other a torch song with stunning chorus and beautiful delivery from a band focused around the talents of their talismanic singer.
