Do Whatever You Want All The Time

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Since we last heard from Baltimore’s Ponytail, with 2008’s <i>Ice Cream Spiritual</i>, guitarist Dustin Wong released a solo record of experimental music and drummer Jeremy Hyman worked with the Boredoms. Ponytail’s hiatus proved to be a good thing, with the quartet reconvening their own special meeting of the minds to produce a lovely, kaleidoscopic record that again marks real growth for the band. The guitar playing of Ken Seeno and Wong is by turns enchanting and playful (“Honey Touches,” “AwayWay”) and complex and mesmerizing (“Tush,” “Flabbermouse”). Sometimes, as on the brilliant mini-epic “Music Tunes,” it’s all of the above and more. Vocalist Molly Siegel is as animated as ever, the aural equivalent of a soda can shaken to bursting point, and on tracks like the otherworldly and exuberant “Easy Peasy,” Smith’s critical role in the band is especially tangible: her nonsensical mewlings and utterances are the sticky glue weaving shifting tempos, simmering drum rolls, and fancy-footed guitar riffs into something like an intricate web of intense strength and beauty.

via Apple Music