Pontoons - Slow

Album review by KevW

It's only taken them 21 years, but finally New York's Pontoons have got their act together and made an album. It's not been quite as straightforward as being the kings of procrastination or attempting to outdo Guns N' Roses, but we won't go into details here, you can find more on their story in this previous post. For us humble listeners, the fact that these guys decided to reunite and take care of this unfinished business is a blessing, as the self-mockingly titled 'Slow' is an album contains several wonderfully made tracks. The saying goes that you have your whole life to write your debut album and then a year to write your second. Well, Pontoons had their life to write a debut album, didn't get round to it, and then had a further couple of decades to work on some tunes. They've had twice as long as most other bands have to write their debut, so I think we're entitled to expect something quite good, and they just about deliver it.

The usual tricks of kick-starting your first LP with a rollicking attention grabber or a short introductory piece are cast aside here. Instead the duo opt to introduce 'Slow' with the tender acoustic track 'The First Time', it might not be the incendiary ignition we expected but it's quite beautiful and stands up as one the the album's finest tracks. The following jangle of 'Shiver' doesn't light the blue touch paper either, although it does up the pace a notch. It's not until scuzzy sixth track, 'The Path' that any real vigour is shown, aping the alt-rock bands who ruled the roost when the first incarnation of Pontoons walked the earth, it's worth waiting for. 'Down Here' sticks with the fuzz yet somehow ends up sounding a little flat, something that also deadens the impact of 'Sleepless'. So things don't completely come up smelling of roses, but when they get it right it's certainly impressive.

'Slow' almost seems topsy-turvy. Where some albums start with a bang and tail off towards the end, Pontoons have made a record that does the opposite. From the mid-point they hit a rich vein of form, the subtle instrumental title-track is quite lovely, and in 'Antidote' they have a great guitar-pop single and one that is deserving of much more coverage than it's likely to receive. Such is life. If they're saving the best until last then we should expect something special from eight-minute closer 'Shaking', and it duly arrives. They do gentle acoustics expertly as they've shown on previous tracks, but here they let the sound build. Those buzzing guitars take over part way through and it all goes a little bit Dinosaur Jr., which is no bad thing. After an epoch in the making Pontoons have at last shown us what they're made of, and although 'Slow' isn't perfect, there are enough good tunes here to leave us hoping that difficult second album is delivered with a little more haste.







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