Pomegranates – Everybody Come Outside
Self-professed “art pop denizens” Pomegranates, along with contemporaries Sufjan Stevens and Page France, are yet another addition to the ever-increasing list of indie-tinged Christian pop acts. They share a similar wide-eyed musical aesthetic, and while not as consistently engaging as the aforementioned artists, are continuing to stretch in terms of conceptual and thematic ambition.
Though largely publicized by the band’s label as containing“an unusual tale about a character who leaves home only to be abducted by a time traveler,” there is very little story here. It’s like capturing a precious fragment of Sufjan Stevens’ wonderful 2003 achievement Greetings from Michigan and magnifying it to stretch 48 minutes. The result is something often sentimental, but void of the fine-tuned details and scope that make an album of greatness so wholly immersive. We have a spark, and alas, no fire.
There are moments when flames appear to form. Most noticeably is in album centerpiece “Southern Ocean”, a miniature epic containing the rousing battle chirp “We’re not scared anymore!” The impassioned delivery at the end of “This Land Used to Be My Land, But Now I Hate This Land” is unexpected for sounding so markedly brash in a record that tends to pride itself on its sweetness and near unrelenting agreeability.
The voice of leader Joey Cook, much in the vein of Michael Nau or Sufjan, has a categotical softness to it, though it possesses a much more epicene quality than either. The result is, appropriately, very childlike in its lack of gender distinction. It is inescapably the first thing you will notice about the band, and is probably their most redeeming aspect.
Pomegranates still have a ways to go, but at the very least, they appear willing to get their feet wet. Sometimes, this leads to a few pleasant surprises – others, as is the case with the meandering and overlong final track “I Feel Like I’m a Million Years Old”, reveal how much growth is necessary for the band to rival their God fearing contemporaries.
I LOVE this record and think your review is a little off. The album definitely tells a story.. both lyrically and sonically. And the bans is so young.. to compare to the likes of Sufjan is ridiculous not only because they DO compare but because Poms have been around for, what.. 2 years?
Thanks for the comment, Joe.
I compared the two because the ambition is there, and they seem to coexist in what is becoming a quite fashionable trend of Christian indie pop. I certainly don't hold it against the band that they have not created something on par with "Michigan," but that kind of greatness appears to be their ultimate aim – The great cake in the sky by which all other standards are set.
This album was an undeniably bold undertaking, and I will always commend that.