Bowerbirds And Blue Things

In the bands eight years of existence at this point, the U.K.-based Jetstream Pony have traded mostly in one-off 7"s and the occasional EP, a release practice they started out with in the late 2010s and picked up again after the arrival of their 2020 full-length debut. Meanwhile, they developed a lusher, dreamier indie pop sound coinciding with settling into a quartet lineup. Five years later, Jetstream Ponys second album, Bowerbirds and Blue Things, features the quintet of founding members Beth Arzy (Aberdeen, Trembling Blue Stars, the Luxembourg Signal) and Shaun Charman (the Wedding Present, Popguns), longtime bassist Kerry Boettcher (Turbocat), new drummer Tom Levesley (previous stickman Hannes Muller appears on two tracks), and additional guitarist Mark Matthews. He helps buttress their pretty seamless blend of vintage indie pop, dream pop, shoegaze, and even post-punk on songs like opener "Sit and Wonder," which isnt too far off from the melded sound of MTV-era Cure. They also welcome singers other than Arzy to the mike more freely on a 12-song outing that otherwise picks up right where the debuts bouncy, bittersweet tunefulness, reflective nature, and guitar-textured approach left off. Lyrically, the albums often-anxious, philosophical mood is captured in the titles of tracks like "Frustration Can Cause Accidents," a girl-boy harmonized bop with a heavier low end and more feedback than is typical of the indie pop canon; the hazy yet driving "Bad Common Earth Connection," whose choruses repeatedly ask, "How do you sleep?"; and the part-spoken "The Relativity of Wrong" (featuring the Falls Eleni Poulou), which continues to search for answers along gritty basslines. Although the latter song is one of the albums darkest (along with the dingy "Tendrils"), its offset by sweeter entries like the dancy "Bubblegum Nothingness," infectious, duo-delivered "Only If You Want To," and jangle-rock effort "Captain Palisade," all of which contribute to a satisfyingly dissatisfied record with an assuredly blurry sound to match. ~ Marcy Donelson