Matt Pond

by A.D. Amorosi

ROCK/POP We like Keane. We'd even go as far as saying Keane's brand of wistful cold-played Brit pop is neate. But we'll assemble for the subtle melodicism and unerring emotional vocals of Matt Pond and his band of renowns, and their chamber-country-charmed arrangements. With its bouncing baroque music and sad-eyed lowland lyrics (and matching quivering vocals) it seems as if MPPA's new CD, Emblems (Altitude) is a study in weird-juxtaposed fragility. Tunes like "New Hampshire" and "Closest (Look Out)" are achy-breaky beyond healing.

But there's a smarmy sarcasm that runs through his river of tearjerking that finds Pond as cuttingly clarion and smugly carnivorous as he was on The Green Fury. He's a scene-chewer who likes to stew in sorrow before blowing hot, then hotter. This is Pond at his most powerful.

You'll have to agree with Pond that Emblems' best track is "East Coast E" — his most direct set of lyrics yet. "I could choose something more clever," says Pond of "E"s simplicity. "But these days, I am trying to put things forward without so many obtuse angles; as if I were trying to hide the meaning. I don't want the thing all obvious — some kind of open wound, with my guts hanging out. But I think I like being direct."

In "E" the montage of a life flashing forward to an end guides Pond toward a narrative that's stunningly succinct — as if someone had left a Super 8 mm movie camera on while diving through a car accident's surrealist squeals. "It is — how time stops, how everything changes so quickly — jarring. The fastest way of changing your life. What seems perfect one second later is completely destroyed. It's a horrible and powerful and compelling thing." Just like this song.

Tue., June 22, 7 p.m., $10-$12, all ages, with Keane and Av Om, The North Star, 27th and Poplar sts., 215-684-0808.