ALBUM REVIEW: Dead Pony – ‘IGNORE THIS’

There’s a song on Dead Pony’s debut album IGNORE THIS called Motor City Mad Man. It’s the final song on the album, where the vocal affectation of a snorting hillbilly is given to some scagged-up barroom-rock as the most obvious pastiche imaginable. It’s also a few dozen worlds away from anything else the album delivers.

It’s worth mentioning all of that because if that song were the one and only bit of exposure someone had to Dead Pony, they’d likely be put off for good. Whoever scooped it up from the cutting-room floor to be the album closer needs a stern talking to, for one of the more baffling decisions this end of alt-rock has seen…maybe ever. The point is, IGNORE ME doesn’t need to staple on stunts like that; it’s already a good showcase of what Dead Pony have grown to be as a more versatile band. If their War Boys EP laid down a solid basis of decent-if-unremarkable rock music on the fringes of the stuff really catching fire, this is a headfirst dive in to prove a point.

Said point has a few layers—a) that Dead Pony are fully capable of restructuring to fit with modern rock’s heavy hitters; b) that they’ve sharpened up a good bit in their propensity for hooks and especially melody; and c) that the two can slot together with little fuss. For a fairly drastic reinvention, IGNORE THIS does a good job at fulfilling its goals, up to a point. Obviously comparisons will ensue between the scene’s swathes of other functionally-genre-agnostic alternative champs, among which Dead Pony are forced to hold their own. They’re not as wishy-washy in their efforts as Yonaka, though also not as steadfastly sure as Nova Twins, even if they do fortunately trend more towards the latter. In fact, the Nova Twinsiness can be what makes significant portions of IGNORE THIS strike more eagerly, as production is densened and added programming keeps the shell of songs like MK Nothing and COBRA nice and firm.

Conversely, the hulking, hip-hop-informed swagger is largely tamped back for Dead Pony, though the opportunity to fashion something more flexible is a handy trade-off. Outside of a number of interludes seemingly designed as a home for loose ideas missing a full creative body, IGNORE THIS hops around rather briskly, in tow of a more elasticated alt-rock leash. Touches of Dead Pony’s earlier grunge mask comes back for some satisfying melodic wallops in About Love and X-Rated; meanwhile, the blocky, crunchy RAINBOWS and sting-in-the-tail disco-rock of Bad Girlfriend feel like two sides of a musical coin that’s been polished and preserved immaculately.

Like most of these bands, it’s an overriding sense of cool that keeps Dead Pony in nigh-perpetual motion. Also like most of them, you can assign the bulk of that effort to their frontperson. It’s an area where Anna Shields seems right at home, with a well of charisma and confidence as big as her voice, and the range of scrappy, self-assured and vulnerable that often proves useful to have. If there’s one factor within Dead Pony that’s engaged with their metamorphosis flawlessly—outside of how thick and buzzy their particular programming tone can be—it really is Shields. She’s the source of running-over star power that seems par for the course, tying together a lot of what Dead Pony lay down while serving as the obvious standout among all of it.

In a way, it all feels like a resolution of what’s been predetermined for this band for a fair bit. War Boys brought a lot of eyes their way, and the subsequent ripples had Dead Pony primed for far bigger things. On IGNORE THIS, not only has that notion bore a lot of fruit, but in a way that’s more dynamic and exciting, and, really, beneficial for everyone. They’re slicker and punchier with more inspiration baked in, a product of musical realignment that’s about as convincing as anyone’s. If the album title applies to anything, it’s solely to that anomaly of a closer; for everything else, ignoring Dead Pony just doesn’t seem like an option.

For fans of: Nova Twins, Yonaka, SNAYX

‘IGNORE THIS’ by Dead Pony is released on 5th April on LAB Records.

Words by Luke Nuttall