Pond’s ‘Terrestrials’ Matches Grit With Groove
Calling all rageful idealists and optimistic pessimists—psychedelic rock mainstays Pond have dropped their eleventh studio album Terrestrials, and it claws deep into the Australian geography and cultural landscape with dirt underneath its nails. Terrestrials takes a hard look at our man-made hellscape and asks, “Are you having fun yet? No? Of course not—look at where we came from and where we’re headed.” And then they throw in some sick synth beats to drive the message home.
The Aussie five-piece band—Nick Allbrook, Jay Watson, Shiny Joe Ryan, James Ireland, and Jamie Terry—were last on the scene with their 2024 album Stung!, which was a little more dreamy and introspective than the band’s past auditory ilk. Terrestrials is the next step in the band’s evolution. The record holds Pond’s characteristic wall-of-sound energy and carries over the tight, contemplative songwriting and buzzy hooks from Stung! but turns the focus outward. Despite the band not using their characteristic fuzz petals on Terrestrials, the album still has plenty of grit.
The punchy opening track “Skyworks” introduces the album’s electronic flair and thematic attention to place and time. Although the inspiration for this song was Australia Day (Australia's national holiday celebrating the arrival of Great Britain), it might also be on a few scrutinous Fourth of July playlists this year because the lyrics dissect the discord between patriotism and the horrors of colonization—“Now the future’s in the water / And I’m on my hands and knees / The fireworks blind his daughter / And all the dead among the peppermint trees.”
“Casuarina” takes you on a rough ride. A choppy stop-go whiplash riff feels like you’re driving a bumper car and are pinned against the wall being battered every time you try to scoot away from the melee. The jarring riff mirrors the meaning behind the title; Casuarina is the name of a native Australian tree with spiritual significance, but it’s also the name of a notorious juvenile prison known for its horrible conditions. Allbrook says this song was written in response to the suicide of Indigenous teen Cleveland Dodd while incarcerated at Casuarina.
If you’re looking for an escape, the electro-disco “Through the Heather” will do the trick. It will make you feel like you’re in Tron, or for people with impeccable film taste, Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase. You hit play on the song, then look down in shock as your hand dissolves into pixels and you’re floating through a digitized world. Sparkly synth and buoyant, bouncy vocals break into a textured guitar interlude. The rowdy “Two Hands” opens with deep, menacing vocals that set a scene of fire, gallows, and rage. Laser sound effects add to the pump-up feel of the track, and the accompanying music video features a fitting Mad Max post-apocalyptic aesthetic. Sure, it’s the apocalypse, but you’re a survivor, and you make it look good. “If your blood pumps and your heart beats / I’ll meet you on the corner of my street / And our two hands can make a fist / red mist.” Pew pew!
Acoustic guitar adds a softer edge to the more laid-back “Roebuck Plains” that would fit into a playlist alongside easy-listening electro pop favorites from Passion Pit or MGMT. “The Fatal Shore” shares its name with a classic book about Australian history, and this track adds longtime collaborator Kevin Parker as a producer. A drum machine and kaleidoscopic beat carry Parker’s Tame Impala sensibilities, but the dark fantasy feel of the song is also reminiscent of Parker, Allbrook, and Ryan’s early work within their band Mink Mussel Creek. The stripped-down, reverb heavy “Tourmaline” conjures feelings of loneliness and apathy—“Violence bores me / Peace even more still/Jane ignores me”—veiling an underlying, simmering desperation for connection with something or someone—“Honey golden, holding me and you . . . God is in the rain . . . And God is in the reeds.” Like the unrefined mineral itself, this song’s perspective is hardened with the potential to be chipped into a new shape.
“Terrestrials” is a catchy call back to earth and each other. This track is drenched in the hallmarks of Pond’s explosive, euphoric songwriting that hits like an interrobang: propulsive beats, surprising sonic detours that keep you on your toes, and off-kilter lyrics that are both absurd and acutely emotive. “Do your whiskers quiver with the promise of debris?” “Personal Hell” juxtaposes highly specific, individual references to people and moments and memories with the universal affirmation that “Everybody’s going through their own personal hell / Shot by the light or the heart of a cell.” The message is accented by frenetic strumming and an edge of discord.
Consider this an official petition to get “Nashville (I’m Dying)” onto an episode of 9-1-1: Nashville, preferably in an incredibly absurd, musical emergency like an artist filming a music video is dangling off the Batman Building and only a thin coil of guitar strings is saving them from their imminent demise. Like the titular city itself, this song features longing and nostalgia set against a campy backing track.
At its core, Terrestrials is about humanity. Pond has articulated their sound into a jumpy, frenzied attitude that chases, corners, and pins down the collective urgency to fix our relationships with each other and our environment driven by a sense of impending doom. Are we dancing the anxiety away, or are we flailing in fear? Either way, let’s do it in style.
Catch Pond on their North American tour, and experience Terrestrials for yourself below.
