The Optimist

Genre dances in the New Young Pony Club way

Gurus of dance music, New Young Pony Club, issued their first full- length effort a very short while ago, in 2007. The musicians did not hesitate and shift from one foot to another waiting for the invitation to the big stage. Instead, they literally rushed onto it captivating the imagination of the audience. Their first studio work, Fantastic Playroom, proved a true pleasure to those who just love music, and quite a challenge to those who love to give music names. Indeed, New Young Pony Club appeared great masters of style fusion, which made it difficult for the critics to reach an agreement on defining the type of music they play. Apart from obvious impact of the disco from the eighties and nineties, it also features tricks from some later trends. All this had a fascinating flavor of nostalgia, yet sounded amazingly fresh and modern. There is no surprise that all influential music periodicals and radio stations paid lots of time and attention to the so much audacious and creative fresher. In cases like this one you can not escape worries that the young talents will simply copy themselves in an effort to do repeatedly what once brought them success. The doubts and concerns were to be washed away by the band’s second full-length CD that hit the market in the spring of 2010 under the title The Optimist. Isn’t there something optimistic in it?

Gloomy optimism

You will not believe it, but the very first track off the new album by New Young Pony Club shatters mercilessly all the assumptions about the self-copycat. It is a powerful pop-number with such confident vocals from Tahita Bulmer that you never had a chance to hear three years ago. In fact, the set of the first three songs (also including Chaos, and The Optimist) set the mood for the whole work. You will easily recognize the already established sound by New Young Pony Club with their constant and overwhelming synths alongside highlighted bass lines. The only difference is that all of it sounds much more confidently and maturely making you think that the preparation of the record involved ten years instead of the actual three and the band have combined it regular tours alongside the best performers. Finally, The Optimist, against what the title might imply, is darker than the predecessor. You can guess even after looking at the album’s cover where the rays (is it of optimism?) do not look as impressive as the ultimate darkness embracing the musicians. The work’s final word is an amazingly emotional composition called Architect Of Love. This could be a recapitulation of what the musicians had learned by the moment of the record’s making, mirroring of the best what is in music from New Young Pony Club.

Signs of evolution and reasons for optimism

It is very likely that the title of the work is not about its content simply because the music New Young Pony Club produced this time is far from optimistic even if compared to the debut effort released three years ago. Probably, it is about the optimism that you are about to feel thinking about the band’s future. Still playing a combination of dance genres, this outfit is perfectly aware of its strongest sides and builds upon them confidently. Retaining the same musical toolset, New Young Pony Club changed the atmosphere, now revealing to the audience a darker facet of their art. Even the designs of their first two albums give much to think about. Light-minded partiers whose faces are hard to distinguish yet were clowning on the white background in 2007. Now we know these people. They have grown more mature, more serious, and it is symbolized even by the general coloring of their new studio work that has gone gloomier. Everything good that was presented three years ago is transferred to this release, while the flaws have been worked on thoroughly. When all goes just the way you want it, when you are good at what you like, how can not you not be an optimist?