From Matt Pond …
The Ballad Of The Pure Strains (Sonder Home) is the follow-up to an album and EP we launched as a band known as the Pure Strains. We fashioned a gaggle in the course of the pandemic, centered on the monotony and fantastic thing about primary life, launched the music on Bella Union, toured after which switched again to Matt Pond PA.
Returning to my title, I didn’t wish to make an album that repeated what we’d already achieved. I wished to create one thing that felt true to how I communicate. To reconnect with my first sense of freedom, I began writing as if I had been driving—driving in silence, driving with a vengeance, driving with a head stuffed with unwinnable arguments, driving and feeling grateful for such an extended profession of songs.
Greater than something, driving is made for listening to music. Even when you must lean into the center of the automotive to catch the total stereo impact, it’s the place the place the whole lot turns into clear: life, loss of life and all of the mundane drives throughout lengthy excursions when there’s no cellphone protection and all you are able to do is zone out and stare on the desert.
That is music I cherished and listened to as I drove and wrote an album about driving:
Wilco “Not possible Germany”
Let’s agree with a easy premise, a easy fact: When you don’t already love guitar solos, this track will make you’re keen on them. And I don’t assume some other track captures so many feelings whereas being so fantastically elusive.
Bnny “Nothing Lasts”
I wish to learn to sing quietly but with immense energy—to blow you away with a whisper. Leonard Cohen may do it, Elliott Smith may do it, Hope Sandoval can do it, Anya Marina can do it, and Jessica Viscius does it right here.
Blur “The Narcissist”
It’s wild that Blur retains making higher and higher albums. It provides hope to these of us who’re now not 19 to maintain looking for songs. With “The Narcissist,” Damon Albarn is each a god and a humble human. Sing alongside, and also you’ll end up driving 90, flying and not using a second thought.
Faye Webster “Suite: Jonny”
I like the character Faye Webster takes on within the spoken a part of this track—like some sweetly deranged teenager from the ’50s. Trey Pollard’s preparations reply to her voice, constructing right into a bittersweet epic. I’ve all the time cherished the narration within the Ink Spots’ music, however it was this track that gave me the braveness to attempt it on “Dangerous Enterprise.”
The Clientele “Blue Over Blue”
“Blue Over Blue” instantly influenced “Little Indicators” … a inexperienced subject on a hillside in New Hampshire with my sister—a easy imaginative and prescient of quiet the Aristocracy.
Pretenders “Brass In Pocket”
Chrissie Hynde is probably the most badass singer I’ve ever met inside my headphones. She makes me wish to smoke; she makes me really feel harmful. Allow us to all commit some victimless crimes, please. Amen.
Massive Thief “Shark Smile”
It was a gradual construct between me and Massive Thief. They blindsided me a few years in the past with how highly effective they’re as a band and the way robust Adrianne Lenker is as a lyricist and frontperson. Then it hit me: They’re harmful, too!
Sluggish Pulp “At House”
That is everlasting summer season, distilled. Excellent laconic riffs beneath a twilight lament. It’s susceptible, it’s candy—and, in some way, it’s powerful. Being unsure has by no means felt so free and straightforward.
Tom Petty “You Don’t Know How It Feels”
The simplicity and rawness of Tom Petty’s music introduced me into the cult. But it surely’s his approach of seeing the world—the precise precision of his phrases—that retains me worshiping.
Joni Mitchell “Amelia”
I had a steel Amelia Earhart lamp beside my mattress rising up. I don’t know the place it got here from or the place it went. The lampshade was a parachute, the lightbulb held aloft by wires; her physique and the world fashioned the bottom. After I first heard “Amelia,” I questioned if Joni had the identical lamp—or if these had been my long-lost sisters making an attempt to achieve me concerning the hexagram of the heavens.
Jockstrap “Glasgow”
It took me just a few weeks to get previous the title and eventually press play on I Love You Jennifer B. As soon as I did, I couldn’t cease listening. These two sensible musicians write unimaginable songs with wild manufacturing and preparations. It’s like they’ve mastered the artwork of exposing themselves utterly whereas laughing at all of it.
New Order “Your Silent Face”
I wish to be a very good individual. I wish to keep open to my fellow people and hope for the most effective. My coronary heart has religion, however the incivility of my fellow drivers leaves nowhere for my darkish facet to cover. New Order makes area for all of the individuals in my mind: “You’ve caught me at a foul time. So, why don’t you piss off?”
Porches “Do You Wanna”
Anya and I used to sing this as a duet—living-room harmonies that all the time led to dancing. Heartbreak is Sunday-smooth with Aaron Maine on the cowbell.
Youth Lagoon “Rabbit”
Nobody sees the world like Trevor Powers sees the world. Nobody has a voice like Trevor’s voice. I consider there are aliens dwelling amongst us—and that we’re the aliens.
The Replacements “If Solely You Had been Lonely”
My school girlfriend put this track on a break-up mixtape. It was my introduction to the Replacements. Till years later, I didn’t notice this messed-up, damaged band had written a few of the greatest songs ever. I got here again to it as a result of the lyrics and the recording are pure and actual. They’re who they are saying they’re. Nothing beats that.
Some remaining ideas on rock ’n’ roll: In my humble opinion, it’s revolt. It’s not about chasing fortune or fame, nor about in search of approval from critics or the world at giant. Rock ’n’ roll is the idea that you simply, alongside a worthy gang of like-minded misfits, can howl on the stars about breaking free from the calls for and constraints of regular society. It’s about standing agency in what you consider, unapologetically, till the very finish. Possibly it’s a cliché, possibly it’s a secondhand album I left in a Datsun to warp beneath the recent solar. However that’s my rock ’n’ roll.
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