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: “Some days are long and summer days are hard/I was dragging my feet across the parking lot/I remember sad faces in the mirror behind me” (As I type with the curtains drawn in my vampire-like lair, I make my daily affirmation in the make-believe mirror: I’m such a sucker for perfectly articulated sadnesses.) This summer, I dragged myself out the door and up the street to see Jessica Pratt at BSP in Kingston. I was proud of my town and the club for the quiet setting and the spectacular sound they afforded her. In return, Jessica played a truly beautiful show. One of those shows where you lose yourself in the music. (Lower Dens, Patti Smith, Jarvis Cocker and Yo La Tengo have all done this to me.) No words between between songs. Just sublime fingerpicking, sublime singing. “Night Faces” hit me in the chest and made my ribs feel compressed and cracked. I went home and laughed at myself, wondering, “I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to make something so beautiful. But I’ll never stop trying.”
Video after the jump.
