Matt Pond PA are a consistent band. And when it comes to music, consistency can be good, and bad. It seems you know a new MP album will drop every year, this is the fifth from the band in the past five years. You know the quartet will have catchy melodies, lovesick lyrics and usually some beautiful album art. Now centrally located in Brooklyn after leaving the brotherly confines of Philadelphia, not much has changed here. The first track on the album, “Halloween” shines, evoking a poor mans Death Cab for Cutie or even a poppier version of The Kinks. And the rest of the album continues along a somewhat consistent path. Nothing too high or low throughout. But after several listens to several arrows, Im a left a bit dry. The negative side of consistency rears its ugly head and can at times bring forth boredom. While I dont buy the whole, “adult emo” tag ive heard to describe Matt Pond, you can certainly hear why fans of the O.C. have had several tracks on their prime time soap. Its actually quite baffling that these guys dont get all kinds of radio play. Dont get me wrong, the title track and a few others are keepers. But I think its safe to say that their recent covers of Champagne Supernova and Aeroplane over the Sea have been much more entertaining than this effort.

But none of these songs, save “Halloween”, make me want to take the next step with this album. The adult contemporization of indie continues! I guess the earlier efforts of a more chamber pop feel have fallen by the wayside in favor of more sugary sound, more accessibility to the teenage masses and less of the instrumentally diverse qualities that had us interested in MP from the start. Color me underwhelmed.

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