The Practice of Joy Before Death

Album Review

Pond formed in the Pacific Northwest in 1992 and promptly signed to Sub Pop, so the band had plenty of ties to the grunge explosion of the early '90s. And sure enough, the group's second album contains the requisite guitar fuzz to mark it as a grunge record. Beneath the distortion, though, there are some key differences between The Practice of Joy Before Death and other '90s Seattle guitar rock albums. The lyrics, for example, are often understated and perceptive, with little self-important sloganeering to be found; guitarist Charlie Campbell and bassist Chris Brady paid more attention to lyrical detail than most of their Pacific Northwestern peers. For example, Campbell spends one song worrying about whether or not a snake can cross a road without being run over. Also, unlike, say, Pearl Jam, Pond's slippery, wiry guitars owe more to post-punk than to Neil Young or Led Zeppelin. Finally, the simple recording (much of the album was cut on an eight-track) makes the album more intimate than many of the big-budget grunge albums of the time. The less-is-more production and incisive songwriting make The Practice of Joy Before Death the best of Pond's three albums.