the fast lane
Losing Today
The Pony Collaboration ‘the fast lane’ (series 8). Sugar tipped 60’s silkiness from Cambridge based cuties the Pony Collaboration. With one full length under their collective belt ‘the fast lane’ lifted from that set is a portion of perfect pop primed to punch holes in your heart. Longingly decorated with sweeping strings and braided with a warming fuzzy twee like lull this breezy bitter sweet beauty sounds to these ears like St Etienne trying hard to navigate their way through the thickly shy defences of ’lazy line painter jane’ era Belle and Sebastian in order to tenderly cuckold their fragile romance . Throw in a few well heeled reference points such as the Loves and Airport Girl into the heady mix and you have yourself a sweetly curdling briskly bounteous sub three minute heart throbbed of some measure. Over on the flip the surrendering ’all I know’ provides for a kind of upbeat yet simmering Tindersticks on the offensive silkily invading territories more commonly associated with the impeccable Kelman all drip dried in an arresting accompaniment made up of twinkling bells pining cellos and soft emotionally tugging stinging strings – dare you resist?
Mark
Room 13
Cambridge’s Pony Collaboration can’t help but sound somewhat like the Magic Numbers but it’s an insult to their brilliance to even compare them…the Pony Collaboration are a thousand times better.
“The Fast Lane” is the first single to be released from the band’s self-titled debut album, which came out in April.
Their sound is perfected, it’s harmonious, pleasant and to a degree magical. Very few bands nowadays provoke a feeling quite like that which you experience when you listen to The Pony Collaboration. It’s a feeling of satisfaction and release.
9/13 – Daniel Black
Is This Music?
This is the first single from the Cambridge band’s debut album, and it’s a lush, string-laden pop gem. The (currently) eight-piece group features glockenspiels, melodicas and violas in addition to the usual fare of guitars, bass and drums to create a fully layered sound. B-side ‘All I Know’ is also a similarly beautiful effort. The Pony Collaboration demonstrate genuine craft and imagination through gorgeous arrangements, fine lyrics and a real sense of what makes a good pop song.
4/5 – Chris Walker
Organ
THE PONY COLLABORATION – The Fast Lane (Series 8). Charming Englishana, I know, there’s no such thing, but they’re just too charming and English to talk of Americana. Warm and breezy and uplifting and laced with glockenspiels and a melodica and sweet voices and strings and taking all very easy and heaven looks so good here in the fast lane. A charming band from Cambridge.
Drowned in Sound
Cambridge’s The Pony Collaboration release their first single, ‘The Fast Lane’, from their self-titled debut that was released back in April. Despite what you may hear about the eight-piece collective’s brain-liquefying musicianship skills and a scene comparison that paints them as a slightly older Los Campesinos!, ‘The Fast Lane’ sounds like an impromptu (I take that back, it sounds extremely premeditated) preschool music-lesson crash.
Full of spongy instrumental arrangements, including a viola, melodica, glockenspiel, and synths, ‘The Fast Lane’ quickly turns into the quite slower lane, with safe and sound pop-standard strings pulling along at a snail’s pace beside some even more standard, but anchoring, acoustic guitar strumming and dreary, sing-along–song, co-ed vocals. It’s all about love and loss and the coming of terms with blah blah blah, but it’s all terribly unconvincing and a poor choice for a first single.
Let this be a lesson to you: always be suspicious of bands with ‘pony’ in their name.
6/10 – RJ Rodriguez-Lewis
Tasty Fanzine
Cambridge’s answer to So Solid Crew (well, there are more members in The Pony Collaboration by my estimation) don’t do a lot of frontin’ but there’s a strong Yankee influence to this first single from their self-titled debut.
‘The Fast Lane’ is like a delicate mixture of Belle & Sebastian trying their hardest to figure out The Thrills’ first album, and while that’s maybe a back-handed compliment, it’s certainly inoffensive. Vocalists Claire Williams and James Scallan find themselves riding a slight melody; the equivalent of surfing in the shallow end, in that there’s no danger of being in any danger but if The Pony Collaboration can use their eight members’ musical talents to create a more current and insistent sound, they may turn a few heads.
Chris Stanley
Gigwise
Sometimes it seems the alt-country label is an excuse for sweet melodies and a slightly off key vocal. The Pony Collaboration are no exception, but are adept at writing well-formed 3 minute pop Error! Hyperlink reference not valid., with thoughtful lyrics. ‘The Fast Lane’ starts off like one of The Cure’s happier numbers and with its intriguing instrumentation (including Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. and Glockenspiel) creates a great feel, with none of the pretension that usually accompanies bands employing such sounds. What The Pony Collaboration do is the equivalent of a good short story- the songs may not last for long, but they feel very complete. Refreshing to hear.
3/5 – Rob Mitchell
The Sunday Experience
The Pony Collaboration ‘Fast Lane’ (Series 8). Another of those ‘blimey where the hell did that come from’ finds in the great pile of lost singles that we recently unearthed – although strictly speaking we are ahead of the game on this for once being that we reviewed it originally at Missive 135 which means – thankfully – that this is a spare we’ve been sent. Any how you can’t keep a good record down and blimey this is a bit of a belter. ‘Fast Lane’ is the kind of thing that frequently slips out of the stables of the Track and Field and Fortuna Pop imprints, vivacious, euphoric and a shimmering belle of loveable 60’s summer pop that sounds like some divine meeting between ‘lazy line’ era Belle and Sebastian and St Etienne – nuff said think. Flip side as previously noted is a ringer for the Tindersticks or better still sounds like reclining Kelman – which in our books makes it the bollocks wouldn’t you say?
