Matt Pond PA‘s The State Of Gold is of a piece with the singer/songwriter’s previous work in its tension between plaintive longing and earnest a ffirmations. Paradoxically, it’s a confident album about having doubts; it looks outward as well as inward. Pond will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our new feature on him.
Pond: People tend to dismiss Ravenous. Understandably, since it’s a poorly received Westward Expansion vampire flick loosely based on the Donner Party. Perhaps that doesn’t draw you in. But if it hadn’t been gutted by the production company and if the original director had stayed on to completion, I believe it would’ve been a ridiculous masterpiece. Even still, I love its bursts of rich cinematography coupled with confused campiness. Further, the soundtrack by Damon Albarn and Michael Nyman reigns supreme. Maybe supreme is a lofty title in the presence of modern greats like Ennio Morricone, Danny Elfman, Cliff Martinez, Vangelis, Howard Shore, John Carpenter, Alexandre Desplat, Rachel Portman, Gabriel Yared, David Wingo (we’d love a new Ola Podrida album, if it’s not asking too much). Try turning this soundtrack up as you pass through the Sierra Nevadas or the Rockies on an overcast day. Scan the rise and the fall of the unforgiving mountains, the valleys unfolding as you race and brake downward. These are the moments I love and live for on tour. The quiet cinematic moments which occupy my abstracted memories. I’ve seen most of these roads a million times. The only way forward is keep finding new ways to shoot it with my eyes. And the right music to score it with on the stereo.
Video after the jump.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2V-KLn_PgQg
