Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

With 'Still Summer,' Matt Pond PA Announces Its Final Album

Matt Pond PA's new album, <em>Still Summer</em>, comes out August 11.
Courtesy of the artist
Matt Pond PA's new album, Still Summer, comes out August 11.

Matt Pond PA has been churning out charming power-pop songs for nearly 20 years — a run that will extend to 12 full-length albums when the band releases Still Summer on August 11. Its arrival will mark a major milestone in a long and creatively fruitful career: Once tours for the new record have run their course, singer-songwriter Matt Pond is effectively breaking up the band, dropping the "PA" and carrying forward with new projects.

Viewed through that lens, it's no surprise that Still Summer's title track carries extra nostalgic weight. Pond was already a master of couching wistful reflection in rousing anthems, and "Still Summer" demonstrates that skill to wondrous effect: Playfully retro synths and chant-along choruses ("I won't let go / I won't let go / I won't") all contribute to a hook-packed snapshot of late-summer love and its bittersweet aftermath. If "Still Summer" had been recorded by The Cars in 1984, it'd already be a classic.

Naturally, Pond associates the song with his own sepia-toned memories. "My first job was at a snack bar in northern New Hampshire," he writes via email. "My first girlfriend was an ice-cream-slinging associate. After work, we'd split for the river on rusty bikes, resisting curfews and looking for something dangerous to do. Gasoline and matches never failed. I remember yellow-line tightrope-walking in traffic for no good reason. Even though our crimes were humble, every second felt like a serious thrill. Each glance and grazing fingertip meant something."

Still Summer is due out August 11 via 131 Records.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Stephen Thompson is a writer, editor and reviewer for NPR Music, where he speaks into any microphone that will have him and appears as a frequent panelist on All Songs Considered. Since 2010, Thompson has been a fixture on the NPR roundtable podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, which he created and developed with NPR correspondent Linda Holmes. In 2008, he and Bob Boilen created the NPR Music video series Tiny Desk Concerts, in which musicians perform at Boilen's desk. (To be more specific, Thompson had the idea, which took seconds, while Boilen created the series, which took years. Thompson will insist upon equal billing until the day he dies.)