Terrapin Pond: Hello All Stations
Hello All Stations by Terrapin Pond doesn’t really hit you dead on in the face. It becomes a soundtrack that envelopes you and pushes your mind from whatever it is your doing into thought mode. It’s the type of album that if you played while driving you’d either get to the end of the album or reach your destination without remembering anything in between. I guess that’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it leaves me wondering how much of the music did you actually listen to. I consider it like the music the hippies liked where once high the music just helped move you along without you even knowing it. I didn’t find myself tapping my toes or bobbing my head to the music. I was more just quicksanded into emotions and thoughts. I guess in terms of touching the audience this is a success, but I’m not sure it gives the album replay value.
The songs are all on the somber side which can be fine. It just starts to take its toll on at least this listener. What I’m drawn to is the image of the bands name Terrapin Pond. A sort of swampy, dusky lit area where the boggy water hides what really is happening. Where the animals that you do see, such as a frog or a turtle, don’t particularly seem so alive. Everything lives life through a lazy mist. A calming sort of quality that hides the true danger.
Vocalist Jason McKendree reminds me of Tom Petty and other singers of that time. His voice wouldn’t surprise me to sound the same if he were singing or speaking. And the music has this folksy-rock appeal to it.
Musically, the album focuses on plucked instruments such as the banjo and mandolin. It gives it a very Southern feel. But the guitars use distortion which gives it this alt-rock feel that doesn’t entirely estrange itself from the music. Coupled throughout are some fiddles which really mix the album’s genres into a thick milkshake-like consistency.
Unfortunately, it is that thick consistency which hurts the album. It relaxes you. But relax too much and sleep becomes the result. Sleep mimics boredom, and while the album is not boring a listener who isn’t willing to really listen will confuse the relaxation for boredom. And the rest is easy to figure out.
Rating: 5.3/10
MP3: Terrapin Pond “Fortune From the Stars”
Buy: iTunes
Terrapin Pond: Hello All Stations
