Pomegranates – Everybody, Come Outside!

If you’re anything like me, just the mere mention of the word ‘winter’ will make you long for hot, sunny days and mountains of ice cream. Instead, endless months of rain, freezingness and shapeless knitwear are ahead. As SAD sets in, the perfect antidote is always a dose of summery indie-pop, isn’t it?

Pomegranates step up to this mood-altering challenge pretty well with their UK debut, Everybody, Come Outside! As soon as the insistent drumming of the title track begins, along with the order to “COME OUTSIDE!”, you want to stop whatever it is you’re meant to be doing and play out.

Allegedly, Everybody… is meant to be a concept album, based on the idea of a young bloke leaving home before being abducted by a time traveler, in a space ship called ‘Coriander’. Sometimes the very idea of a concept album can be off-putting, and one involving time-travely funny business might turn off some potential listeners straight away. Thankfully, Pomegranates are SO ACE that they’re able to pull it off without diving into cheese territory.

The album’s “journey” really begins on third track ‘This Land Used To Be My Land, Now I Hate This Land’, when singer Joey Cook yelps about being “…so tired of living in the city/and never being able to see the stars at night!” Teamed with the juxtaposing vocals of Isaac Karns, which provide a more masculine foil to Cook’s, the overall feel of the song is one of desperate wanderlust.

The influences on Everybody…! range far and wide. Take the quirky Shins-esque pop of ‘Southern Ocean’ for example; as the narrative of the album changes from displeasure to pure, unadulterated excitement, it’s reflected in the jerky guitar hooks,  the machine-gun drumming and especially the ‘awoooooo’ noises that break up the song’s bridge.

The only way I can think of to describe the beginning of ‘Coriander’ is ‘sparkly’.  ‘Atmospheric’ would be good too, as the whole dreamy vibe of the song conjures up the feeling that you’re flying. When you’re least expecting it, there’s a steel-string solo that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Peter Gabriel song (in a good way, not a ‘Sledgehammer’ way).  ‘Svaatzi Uutsi’ starts off sounding like something Vampire Weekend might have made if they hailed from Hawaaii, before morphing into shoegazey new wave. The lyrics are gorgeously provocative too, and like album opener ‘Everybody, Come Outside!’, it makes you want to join in their fun.

This album would be pretty much perfect if it wasn’t for two things. ‘384 BC’ is only alright at best- a song that lasts one minute and forty seconds just seems a bit pointless, especially when its pace is so much slower than the two songs that sandwich it.

Closing track ‘I Fell Like I’m A Million Years Old’ is another gripe. This song has the potential to be excellent. Except for the fact that at 13 minutes long, it probably needs about seven of them cutting off. It starts off fine; a perfect, sleepy-sounding lullabye to send Pomegranates on their way after a knackering day of time-travelling. But really, do I really need to hear or want to hear the same two acoustic chords played over and over for ten minutes or so, with no words at all? I’m assuming the effect they were going for was dreamlike- instead, I find myself having to fade it out manually so I don’t go into a coma.

To sum it up, I bloody love Pomegranates. I love their first album which you can’t buy over here. I’ve downloaded the sessions off the internet, and tried to buy a T-shirt with their name on. I love Everybody, Come Outside! too, because for the most part it makes me feel like summer never ended. It’s just a shame that they had to taint it a little with the over-indulgent album close. Apart from that, an excellent indie-pop record from one of my favourite fruity bands.