Genre: Psychadelic, art-pop, indie
Release date:October 14th, 2010
Label: Afternoon Records
MySpace:http://www.myspace.com/pomegranatesart 

It’s a rare thing to stumble upon a band that gives you a new hope for music in the 21st century. It really is… diamond rare, even. So you can imagine my sheer surprise when my goddess of an editor asked me to review Pomegranates debut album, One of Us.

Now, I’m a girl who likes her old folk and rock’n’roll. I like my Bob Dylan, my Rolling Stones, my Patti Smith and my Velvet Underground but I also like my Radio Dept. I like my M83. I like the dream worlds that can be created within synthetically made sounds. I like the chill that runs up your spine when you hear synths distort and vocals become hazy in your headphones. Ilove the mental ambience it creates.

I will give you a single statement upon which solidifies my opinion about Pomegranates: they are one in a million. I do not give that merit lightly.

The opening (and title) track of their album, “One of Us”, is undeniably one of the best I’ve ever heard. It catches you off guard as it presents itself in a sea of strong abstractions. A muffled gurgling floods the gentle tickling of electric strings, drawing the listener into a cognitive state of electro-hypnosis immediately upon listening. A barely audible voice crackles and whispers, “What are you doing here?” It sets a sinister yet darkly inviting tone.

Suddenly, through this ambient haze bursts an upbeat riff, running like an eel-shock through the system. The shrieking bursts of energy vibrating from chords sets a blazing trail on an underwater sea bed – something no one could have expected this seemingly unruffled band to do. While keeping its dreamy composure, the efficient surf rock sound possesses the now enchanted listener to wake from their shoegazing coma and get down, of course. Is it a risky contrast? Yes, of course it is. But as the album plays on, it’s crystal clear that Pomegranates are the sheer masters of risk and contrast.

Following up “One of Us” is a tune named “50′s”, which is a Vampire Weekend cast-off that has been whipped, stretched, distorted and swamped in reverb with Pomegranates graffitied all over it. The truth about a track like “50′s” is while it does possess certain elements pertaining to the kind of quirk-rock that have made Vampire Weekend so popular, it also has something else tainting the heart of it; a bewitching je ne sais quoi that while mesmeric, is also unconscious to itself. “50′s” is easily Pomegranates’ catchiest composition, but it is also somewhat of a slow burner. It features hints and twists that become lodged within your brain, impossible to expel until you revisit the song. And once you do, you find yourself listening to it on a loop, because “50′s” is the song that skillfully initiates the band crush.

Looking back, I’d have thought myself a fool not to have latched onto this album like a barnacle from the first second I heard it, but from the first run through “White Fawn” was the track that had me sold. The rising choral drifts of sound hit you like the first washes of a set of serene waves. Though, abandon any perceptions of Barbados beaches when I say this – the first few golden seconds of “White Fawn” are truly chilling. The mournful, whispered vocals even hold a sense of childlike optimism about them, though are all the same wholly lonesome.

It’s one of those songs that draw you into a parallel with reality. Everything stops and all you are truly aware of are your own thoughts and the serene synchronization of lyric and synth. Drawn into a shoegazing cytoplasm of ill-awareness with the world.

“Perception” rings relative to “White Fawn” in its foremost ambience. However, unlike “White Fawn” which kept a steady beat throughout, “Perception” wrings out the synth sound that illustrates its intro halfway through. “Perception” picks you up and hazes you out. The dreamy yet nonsensical aura of the song is undeniably catching. While the initial structure of “Perception” may be lost, it still holds that spellbinding quality that the entire album has, of drawing you in to the rivet and withholding any feelings of lackluster that have been generated at that point.

“Between Two Dreams” draws itself as the ballad of the album. It’s essential; every album needs an emotional storage, even one such as One of Us, where the whole work seems like the emotional storage. However, “Between Two Dreams” illustrates it in a clearer and classical fashion by utilizing the mechanics of the piano. None of the unique Pomegranates charm is lost though – it doesn’t sound out of context, as if another artist had recorded this song and stuck it on someone else’s album. Rather, the echoing piano is accompanied by, in the best sense of the word, lackadaisical vocals. “Between Two Dreams” is not anything mind-blowing, lyrically. In honesty, it’s pretty basic – but that’s it. It’s the simplicity of the composition that makes it so very heart-wrenchingly effective. The culmination of singular vocal, reverbing piano and dewy-eyed lyric makes “Between Two Dreams” a valid, tearful song.
After the wonderfully grievous ordeal that was “Between Two Dreams”, “Venus” allows us a near two minute resting period of gentle guitar and synth harmonies. The easy atmosphere slides through your body like a soothing tonic, the warmth spreading through you, all the way to your fingertips.

“Venus” descends into silence and the closing track “Into The Water, Into The Air” makes itself known by greeting us with a mechanic bleeping and a host composed of distorted vocals. A steady drum track framing this raggy little party creates a rebellious beat in only a way it appears that Pomegranates can. Their sign off song is brief, but it, like “50′s” is infectious. It clogs the thinking paths of your brain, pulling you to the point of obsession. While unorthodox, it is pretty much the perfect closer.

At the end of this experience, it is revealed that One of Us is an album of true music. True music is something that lives alone and tailors to a personal experience. This album is not an album you listen to with your friends, this album is not an album you put on shuffle at any old party. This is not an album about your ex. This album is not a self-help guide, this album is a puppet master. This is the kind of album that makes you cross under a membrane to find an abyss of solitude. This is the album that you come under the influence of and your dreams become lucid.

One of Us is a soulful maze of fiber optics that plays out like a striking aural hallucinogen, and Pomegranates have proven to be a notable collective of gypsy chemists. If you’re looking to have your heart stolen in the trippiest manner fathomable, look no further.