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There is a disarming honesty and purity in Matt Pond’s music. It doesn’t feel contrived, over-worked or overthought, but instead comes across as a true heartfelt outpouring in straight-ahead rock and roll form. Hints of American music icons Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty jump out (as do power-poppers Big Star), but really, the ten tracks remain Pond’s singular vision developed over years of experimentation. Riding waves of piano, acoustic and electric guitars, the occasional banjo, vocal harmonies and assorted trinkets of sound filling in the holes, Pond tackles love, loss, his family history, humanity and happy times with delicate hooks and emotion. A worldly optimism invades the songs, so when Pond’s hauntingly soulful voice on “Human Beings” sings “You have to believe them,” such sincerity simply makes it so. Albums of this caliber – bearing a true essence of rock and roll – don’t appear that often anymore. Don’t miss it.