Ponytail aren’t always immediately welcoming to everyone’s ears and this chaotic concoction of sound shouldn’t really add up to a pleasurable listen at all. And yet, it all clicks – perhaps more so here on third album Do Whatever You Want All Of The Time than anything they’ve done before. I saw them live a year or so ago, following a cool – some would say emotionless – performance from Telepathe. The audience dwindled, an amp busted, and the odds were stacked against them. But there was no extinguishing the enthusiastic, exciting performance they eventually gave.
After a deep swell of high-octane thrills of this album’s wonderful opening trio of Easy Peasy, Flabbermouse and Honey Touches, a soft, glitchy instrumental simmers away in the centre of the album and lets you take a breath, just for a moment.
The second half of the album is as energetic as the first, but an element of the dreamlike ambience of Beyondersville/Flight Of Fancy is infused in these final tracks. It’s near impossible to really be able to do what you want all of the time, but there’s an infectious optimism in those words, and in this music, that inspires you just to let your guard down and be won over by the wonder of sound.
