Pomegranate - Everybody, Come Outside! Review

Your first thought upon learning of the band Pomegranates might be “Does the world need another indie-pop band?” So many have come and gone that it’s hard to get excited about yet another. Everybody, Come Outside! just might surprise you.

Every so often a band comes along that does this kind of music just right: effortlessly pulling the pieces together and creating something you can’t help but enjoy. Bomb Pops, Aloha, Shout Out Louds, and Nada Surf have pulled it off and now Pomegranates seems very close to doing the same. There’s the breezy “Tesseract,” the hushed melodicism of “384 BC,” the lovely and spirited “This Used To Be My Land, But Now I Hate This Land.” Pomegranates never write the same song twice — a typical pitfall when putting together a full-length release. As if to make the point, Pomegranates end with “I Feel Like I’m A Million Years Old,” a 13-minute pastoral whose slowly changing sounds and moods that not many others could have pulled off....full text I guess it takes some cojones to name your band after a second-class fruit, and then to leave off the ‘The’, but I’m not holding it against Pomegranates, or for that matter, pomegranates. They (the band) are unashamed and come out swinging on their second disc on the Lujo label, looking to make their mark in a kind of Clap Your Hands, Vampire Weekend-ish kind of way. This means that the tinkling guitars are prominent and the mood is celebratory though not a little bit experimental. Like those other, more hyped bands, Pomegranates puts forward some strong material, and a keen sense of melody makes this something more than a simple rehash of tried and true ideas. Dynamics are important too, and this band is adept at managing the highs and lows. A representative track might be Corriander (spices now?!), since it has all the elements; the Soweto via The Edge guitar riff, a respectable tune and a middle section that pulls back and builds some tension. 384 BC acts as a further rumination on Corriander’s harmonic material, with a hushed atmosphere that somehow manages to not come off as indulgent. The same can’t be said for Jerusalem Has a Bad Day, which is needlessly stretched out to almost 7 minutes, and especially I Feel Like I’m a Million Years Old, which would have been poignant at 2 minutes, but is almost unforgiveable at 13. I give them credit though for sticking it at the end of the disc, like Wilco’s Reservations, so as not to interrupt the flow of the album. And it’s proof that this band is still thinking in “album as document” terms, in these heady days of the iPod shuffle (ok, someone needs to write a song called The iPod Shuffle. Here, I’ll get you started: ...full text Pomegranates create an offbeat, arty brand of indie rock that relies heavily on atmosphere, presentation, and -- in the case of this sophomore album, which follows the band's debut by less than one year -- a conceptual story arc involving a boy's swim across the ocean and subsequent abduction by a time traveler. An odd premise, perhaps, but Everybody, Come Outside! revels in such a whimsical narrative, which the band supports with an equally quirky blend of pop-minded guitars and androgynous vocals. Pomegranates aren't fantastic musicians; rather, they're solid storytellers with a knack for delivery, adding little flourishes (including squawking seagulls, crashing waves, gang vocals, and a stomp-clap intro) whenever the plot calls for it. Guitarist Isaac Karns does the most impressive work here by adapting his guitar to a variety of contexts, from the 1950s sock-hop ambience of the title track to the echoing riffs of "Corriander." He also assumes lead vocals from time to time, proving a more masculine contrast to frontman Joey Cook's childlike voice, and his baritone range lends a sense of '80s elegance to songs like "Jerusalem Had a Bad Day." The album does have its flaws, particularly the indulgent "I Feel Like I'm a Million Years Old," which spins the same dreamy chord progression for upwards of 11 minutes (nearly a quarter of the record's entire length) with little dynamic change. Pomegranates may need some more time to ripen fully, but Everybody, Come Outside! will still be a treat to some palettes....full text