9 (Pond album) explained

9
Type:	studio
Cover:	Album 9 by Pond.png
Artist:	Pond
Genre:	Psychedelic pop dance-punk neo-psychedelia psychedelic rock
Length:	39:09
Label:	Spinning Top
Producer:	Pond
Prev Title:	Tasmania
Prev Year:	2019
Next Title:	Stung!
Next Year:	2024

9 is the ninth studio album by Australian psychedelic rock band Pond. It was released on 1 October 2021 by Spinning Top Records.^[1] The album was produced by the band themselves, the first since 2012's Beard, Wives, Denim to not be co-produced by former member Kevin Parker, with bandmates Jay Watson and James Ireland on mixing duties.

9 became the band's first ARIA top ten album, debuting at number 6 on the chart.^[2]

A deluxe version of the album was released on 20 May 2022.

Background

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."^[3] ^[4]

Critical reception

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 9s 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."

Personnel

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

Charts

Chart (2021)! scope="col"
Peak position
Australian Albums (ARIA)^[5]	6

Release history

Region! scope="col"
Date	Format	Edition	Label	Catalogue
Various	1 October 2021		Standard	Spinning Top	STR025CD
Australia	20 May 2022		Deluxe	Spinning Top	STR025DLXLP	^[6]

Notes and References

Web site: POND 9 (CD). JB Hi-Fi. 30 August 2021.
Web site: Drake returns to ARIA Albums Chart #1 with Certified Lover Boy. ARIA Charts. 8 October 2021. 9 October 2021.
Web site: Pond Announce New Album '9'. www.clashmusic.com. 20 May 2021. 30 August 2021. Murray, Robin.
Web site: Pond announce new album 9, detail national tour dates. mixdownmag.com.au. 20 May 2021. 30 August 2021. Brewster, Will.
Web site: ARIA Top 50 Albums Chart. Australian Recording Industry Association. 11 October 2021. 8 October 2021.
Web site: Pond share new song, announce ‘9’ deluxe edition. NME Australia. 4 March 2022. 5 March 2022.