'If These are the Good Times' is the second album by the eight-strong British band the Pony Collaboration; their eponymous debut was released in 2007 to some pretty good reviews.

‘If These are the Good Times’ follows more or less the same musical path as that debut but deserves even more acclaim. The main problem the band is going to have in attracting new fans is that the packaging of the CD really lets the music down. I’ve had this CD in a small pile for some weeks now and it’s been the last one I’ve listened to for one simple fact; it didn’t look very interesting. I’d be the first to say that we shouldn’t judge the musical content by what’s on the cover but I honestly can’t see many people who are looking through CDs in a shop ( if people actually still do that…) picking this CD up just by chance as the cover caught their attention. It’s drab, colourless and totally unappealing. Which is everything the music isn’t…

Ok, rant over but the band is not going to pick up any new listeners with a CD that looks so unappealing. But the music…well it has to be said that if you like Tindersticks especially their ‘Can Our Love…’ album then you’ll love ‘If These are the Good Times’. It’s not just that main man James Scallan is not vocally dissimilar to Stuart Staples with his dark brown almost whispered delivery but the whole feel, particularly the guitar sound, is reminiscence of Tindersticks.

But the Pony Collaboration have added a new dimension to this Tindersticks sound. In Ellie Walker they have a female vocalist who adds some much needed texture and lightness which makes the resulting sound much more appealing and transforms it into something new and exciting. And I guess exciting is not an adjective you could use when describing a Tindersticks album.

If all this makes the Pony Collaboration sound like Tindersticks clones then I apologise, although in the absence of anything new from that excellent band I'd welcome any group who sound remotely like them. It has to be said that the Pony Collaboration show enough of their own identity and display some nice little touches to the music to make them more than just a duplicate.

For starters James Scallan’s songs are built around tunes you just can’t get away from. These are tunes that at once sound familiar but you can’t remember just where you’ve heard them before. His vocals are not as melancholy as those of Stuart Staples, and Ellie Walker’s vocals are the perfect foil to Scallan’s; her sweet, indie-type vocals providing the light for Scallan’s dark whispers to shine at least a little brightly. Despite the band being eight strong the music is never overwhelming, never a wall of dense noise. Violins weave in and out of the songs, a glockenspiel is struck here and there and the pedal steel even makes an appearance. All in all the Pony Collaboration make a sound that is truly beautiful, there really is no other word for it.

The albums opening two songs are in a slow-tempo which, coupled with the vocal sound, brings on those Tindersticks comparisons but by track three, ‘I Never Knew’, the band show another side with the first of a handful of up-tempo songs, this one featuring brass which works really well. It’s unexpected after the almost deathly slow title track that precedes it ; one is almost set for a whole album of melancholy songs but no, The Pony Collaboration prove they are more than a one-trick pony…sorry couldn’t resist that!

This really is an excellent album albeit one that I strongly feel would fare a lot better if it was more attractively dressed, it really is too good to be passed over just because it looks like it could bring on a bout of depression when, in fact, the opposite is true. I would be hard pushed to name a recent album off the top of my head that contained so many beautiful sounds and two vocalists who are so different yet so suited to each other.

To think I almost passed up on this stunning album due to a dull cover, don’t make the same mistake; if you like tunes that are easy to live with but with some substance behind them and still appreciate artists who can really sing then make the Pony Collaboration your next purchase…this band really do deserve to break through with this album.


Track Listing