9 (Pond album)

The album was announced on 20 May 2021, alongside second single "America's Cup". Upon announcement, Nick Allbrook said "We'd settled into a pretty tight routine with the last few albums and wanted to shake a boat with this so we started off with filling a few tape reels with some absolutely heinous improvised sonic babble which, after much sifting, became the first few songs of the album. We also wanted to up the tempo. The last few albums have a neat little mantra or repetitive theme. If I was forced to find something like that in 9, I guess it would be 'biography' or 'observation' - a lot of the lyrics seem to focus on single people's lives, or the lives of small moments or small things when you zoom real close up and they reveal something deeper."{{cite web|url=https://www.clashmusic.com/news/pond-announce-new-album-9|title=Pond Announce New Album '9'|website=www.clashmusic.com|date=20 May 2021|access-date=30 August 2021|author= Murray, Robin}}{{cite web|url=https://mixdownmag.com.au/news/pond-announce-new-album-9-detail-national-tour-dates/|title=Pond announce new album 9, detail national tour dates|website=mixdownmag.com.au|date=20 May 2021|access-date=30 August 2021|author=Brewster, Will}}

{{Music ratings

| MC = 72/100{{cite web |url=https://www.metacritic.com/music/9/pond/ |title=9 by Pond |publisher=Metacritic |date=1 October 2021 |access-date=6 October 2021}}

| rev1 = NME

| rev1score = {{Rating|4|5}}{{cite web|url=https://www.nme.com/en_au/reviews/album/pond-9-review-3059617|title=Pond 9 review: Perth psych gang make their biggest leap into the unknown|website=NME Australia|date=30 September 2021|access-date=2 October 2021|author=Buchanan, Rhys}}

| rev2 = Rolling Stone Australia

| rev2score = {{Rating|4|5}}{{cite web|url=https://au.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/pond-9-review-31570/|title=Pond Take an Exhilarating Step Into Experimentation and Destruction with 9|website=Rolling Stone Australia|date=1 October 2021|access-date=2 October 2021|author=Di Fabrizio, James}}

}}

At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, 9 received an average score of 72 based on six reviews, indicating "generally favourable reviews".

Rhys Buchanan from NME said "The band that keeps on giving, having pushed their self-proclaimed "polished psych-pop" to its outer reaches, reinvent themselves yet again." James Di Fabrizio from Rolling Stone Australia said "At 9{{'}}s best, it's an exhilarating ride through multiple ideas all being born at once. While it will never be Pond's most focused record, it's arguably more interesting to hear the band push forward into new territory than rehash well-trodden ideas."

{{Track listing

| all_writing = Nicholas Allbrook, Jay Watson, Joseph Ryan, James Ireland, and Jamie Terry

| title1 = Song for Agnes

| writer1 = {{hlist|}}

| length1 = 4:14

| title2 = Human Touch

| writer2 = {{hlist|}}

| length2 = 3:20

| title3 = America's Cup

| writer3 = {{hlist|}}

| length3 = 3:50

| title4 = Take Me Avalon I'm Young

| writer4 = {{hlist|}}

| length4 = 3:30

| title5 = Pink Lunettes

| writer5 = {{hlist|}}

| length5 = 5:46

| title6 = Czech Locomotive

| writer6 = {{hlist|}}

| length6 = 4:50

| title7 = Rambo

| writer7 = {{hlist|}}

| length7 = 5:03

| title8 = Gold Cup / Plastic Sole

| writer8 = {{hlist|}}

| length8 = 4:26

| title9 = Toast

| writer9 = {{hlist|}}

| length9 = 4:10

| total_length = 39:09

}}

{{Track listing

| headline = 2022 DLX Edition

| title10 = Lights of Leeming

| writer10 = {{hlist|}}

| length10 = 3:14

| title11 = My Funny Serpentine

| writer11 = {{hlist|}}

| length11 = 3:34

| title12 = The TAB Took My Baby Away

| writer12 = {{hlist|}}

| length12 = 3:03

| title13 = Hang a Cross On Me (ft. Cowboy John)

| writer13 = {{hlist|}}

| length13 = 4:45

| total_length = 53:05

}}

Pond

• Nick Allbrook – lead vocals, guitar, synthesizer, production
• Jay Watson – vocals, bass, guitar, synthesizer, production, mixing
• Shiny Joe Ryan – guitar, synthesizer, production
• Jamie Terry –synthesizer, production
• James Ireland –drums, keyboards, programming, production, mixing

Additional personnel

• David Ives – mastering
• Maud Nadal – additional vocals on "Song for Agnes"
• Jesse Kotansky – strings on "Song for Agnes", "Take Me Avalon I'm Young", "Gold Cup / Plastic Soul" and "Toast"
• Christian Ruggiero – saxophone on "Song for Agnes" and "Human Touch"
• Amaya Courtis – additional vocals on "Take Me Avalon I'm Young" and "Rambo"
• Laurel – additional vocals on "Czech Locomotive"
• Evelyn Ida Morris – piano on "Gold Cup / Plastic Soul"
• Brod Madden-Scott – live instrumental engineering on "America's Cup", "Czech Locomotive" and "Toast"
• Cowboy John – vocals on "Hang a Cross On Me"
• Braulio Amado – artwork and layout

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{{Pond (Australian band)}}

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Category:2021 albums

Category:Pond (Australian band) albums