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The sound is bigger too, strengthening a band that's all guitars-drums-vocals sonics -- including Molly Siegel's yelping vocables, without which the sound's faux-tween soul and wise-ass tempo shifts would evanesce into abstraction.
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With J Robbins producing and the vastly improved sonics, you have a much clearer idea of what everyone is doing. Little things are important with this band, and here, you can actually make them out.
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Ponytail has rendered Ice Cream Spiritual insidiously infectious--and bursting with an oddly tuneful virtuosity that aches to share rather than show off.
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At times, the album's extended jams get a bit wearing, but Ice Cream Spiritual! shows that Ponytail's music is still equal parts challenging, melodic, and fun.
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Not recommended for people with heart conditions or pregnant mothers, but for those of you looking for visceral thrills, this is it.
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This is the band’s second album after their somewhat missed "Kamehamena," and their pounce only proves to reinstill the style of the album’s predecessor.
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They go for punk rock at the most physical level, until their rhythms feel almost like a rave, as in the seven-minute 'Celebrate the Body Electric (It Came From an Angel).'
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UncutEven when they slow up, the quality doesn't let up. [Sep 2008, p.100]
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Lovably noisy baltimore scallywags come good with their second effort.
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It is, more than anything else, the sound of a band having too much fun being good to try being great.
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Presided over by Molly Siegel--a fiery young Yoko Ono impersonator--the disc is precocious but never precious, combining a smart, Juno-esque appreciation of old-school punk that steers clear of mere revivalism.
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As they stand with Ice Cream Spiritual, Ponytail have captured an ample document of their instrumental majesty without losing a lick of their live energy.
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Like an unexpected fist in the face from a five-year-old, Ponytail’s boisterous pop-punk jams are saved from saccharine overkill with some unexpectedly tight hooks, plus a paradoxical, feathery lightness of touch that makes their music feel orgasmically flush even at its churningest and most densely impenetrable.
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Under The RadarMolly Siegel's abstracted vocal acrobatics might not be human, but they melt you all the same. [Summer 2008, p.93]
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The result is akin to bottling one of their energetic live shows, and it makes for a thrilling, if not altogether bump-free ride.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 10 out of 13
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Mixed: 1 out of 13
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Negative: 2 out of 13
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MattM.Sep 15, 2008
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DavidSSep 12, 2008Pure emotion. Awesome and a hell of a lot of fun. Somehow the album works perfectly, for what it is.
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matthewgAug 25, 2008