Song of the Day: Pond - Sweep Me Off My Feet

Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part of our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. Today’s song, featured on the Midday Show with Cheryl Waters, comes from Australian psych rock band Pond. "Sweep Me Off My Feet" is a delicious Kevin Parker-produced teaser from their an as yet unnamed, forthcoming album due early 2017 on Spinning Top Records.

Pond - Sweep Me Off My Feet(MP3)There are a lot of great psychedelic bands out of Australia, but very few of them paint the sweeping landscapes and endless horizons quite as effortlessly as Pond. The Perth band is a music collective surrounding Nick Allbrook, Jay Watson and Joe Ryan, two of whom have also contributed to Tame Impala records. But the rest of the cast is a rotating one, and the sound that Pond capture encapsulates that open door policy with grace. There's structure, but there's also improvisation - goals, and also distractions. It's the wispy mixture that makes it a Pond record, never tethered to the ground but also not so high that you can't make out the captivating shape. Pond have consistently done this for years, and with their upcoming new LP, I doubt much is going to change that.

If "Sweep Me Off My Feet" is any indication, the heights only seem to grow more soaring for Pond. Kevin Parker jumps in here on the production, as he did for the band's 2015 release Man It Feels Like Space (out six months before Currents - that guy doesn't sleep!). Parker's growing ear for pop shows here, as "Sweep Me" is one of the most pop-forward efforts we've seen from the band. But nowhere are the endless Australian skies lost herein. Rather, it's as if the resolution has been cranked up alongside the speakers. Nick Allbrook's vocals sound as strong and vibrant as they ever have, over top sizzling psych riffing and, of course knowing these guys, delicious bass lines. "Sweep Me Off My Feet" is exactly the way to blow off the winter blues and go down under where the summer is just about at its solstice.

Grab "Sweep Me Off My Feet" above, and be on the look out for a new one from Pond some time next year! Keep tabs on them over at their Facebook. And if you happen to be in Adelaide this week, catch them at Gizzfest! For now, watch them perform "Elvis' Flaming Star", from their 2015 release, Man It Feels Like Space Again, live in the KEXP studio: