| Pomegranate | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | Poi Dog Pondering |
| Cover: | Pomegranate (Poi Dog Pondering album).jpg |
| Released: | 1995 |
| Label: | Pomegranate/Bar/None |
| Producer: | Frank Orrall, Martin Stebbing, Poi Dog Pondering |
| Prev Title: | Volo Volo |
| Prev Year: | 1992 |
| Next Title: | Electrique Plummagram |
| Next Year: | 1996 |
Pomegranate is an album by the American band Poi Dog Pondering, released in 1995.[1] [2] It was first released in a limited edition by the band's label, with a national release by Bar/None Records.[3] The band supported the album with a North American tour.[4] Pomegranate sold more than 40,000 copies in its first six months of release.[5] "Catacombs" was released as a single.[6] An EP, Electrique Plummagram, contained dance remixes of some Pomegranate tracks.[7]
The album was produced by Frank Orrall, Martin Stebbing, and the band. It was recorded in an empty basketball gym in Chicago over a period of seven months.[3] The band, which raised around $10,000 for the sessions, aimed for a production that would sound good in a dance club.[3] Frontman Orrall used a handheld microphone for many of the songs, recording "Diamonds and Buttermilk" while crawling around the floor.[8] Orrall thought that Pomegranate was a more cohesive album than the band's previous releases.[9] Steve Goulding played drums on Pomegranate. "God's Gallipoli" addresses the leukemic lymphoma of bandmember Brigid Murphy; Orrall, partly in response to criticism of the band's previous albums, tried to write songs about more serious matters.[10] [11]
Trouser Press wrote: "A collection of groovy, danceable numbers propelled by Orrall's dramatic voice and overly poetic lyricism, Pomegranate manages to recapture both the fun-loving spirit and accomplished musicianship that made Poi Dog such a delight at the start."[12] The Austin American-Statesman determined that "what we have is a funk, soul, techno, psychedelic, artsy, hippie, Whole Foods-eating, Zooropa-inspired band with transcendental lyrics and a staggering nine members."[13] CMJ New Music Monthly praised the "Kraftwerk-meets-disco" sound of "Chain".[14]
The Washington Post concluded that, "though impeccably performed and arranged, the resulting sound—frequently folkie, sometimes funky—is seldom anything more than facile."[15] The Chicago Tribune deemed the album "Poi's most infectiously danceable disc, and also its moodiest."[16] Texas Monthly called it "a deep and—believe it or not—dark multigenre piece set amid a bubbling stew of strings, horns, percussion, and odd electro-funk pulsing, plus other weirdly beautiful noises."[17]
AllMusic noted that "they're at their most sublime and inimitable in the pop ballads."