Side Pony

Their experimentation reaps triumphant results.

Side Pony is a confident, expertly played statement from a band that’s been honing its approach for more than a decade, and it clearly shows that Lake Street Dive is ready to make itself known to whatever audiences have yet to succumb to its many charms.

Like most LSD songs we’ve come to love since the band’s rise in popularity around 2011, Side Pony is packed with tunes you’ll want to sing along to before you know any of the words. But there’s also more sonic muscle here.

Far more effective over the long haul are songs like the loud, bluesy “I Don’t Care About You,” the gentle mid-tempo soul ballad “How Good It Feels,” and the gospel-inspired “Close To Me.” And yet none of those immediately leap out like “Side Pony,” a song that lodges so deeply in the head that after hearing it once it’s impossible to see those two words side-by-side without singing them.

At times, Side Pony can be a bit too breezy or precious for its own good (lullaby-ballad “So Long” strikes a lot of good poses but is astoundingly forgetful given what it’s surrounded by), but at the end of the day, it’s hard to argue with a group that merges so many instruments together to form a sound that feels like warm sunshine on a summer day.

It may take a leap of faith, and it’s hard to imagine how convincingly Lake Street Dive can pull off this slick, immaculately produced studio album on stage, but once you let yourself go with the disc’s flow, it’s tough not be engaged by the sheer vivacity and likeability of a set that sounds like it was plucked out of a time capsule.

The retro vibe rules, captured with gleaming accuracy by producer Dave Cobb, Nashville’s roots-music it-guy (Chris Stapleton, Jason Isbell). If it sometimes feels a bit calculated, it's still pretty irresistible.

They've honed their sound even further, zeroing in on a vintage-inspired, '60s soul aesthetic.

Side Pony is a solid starting point for anyone who has yet to discover the band.