Deer Apartments [LP]

Yellow Marble Vinyl. Matt Pond's very name evokes the natural world in which his songs are so often set, with their evocative lyrics about the sometimes jagged edges of love, the pros and cons of connection, and the agony and ecstasy of memory. He has always mapped the universal emotions of being alive onto the contours of his own stories.From the band's beginnings in Philadelphia in the late '90s to their current home in the heart of the Hudson Valley, through 13 albums (among them Emblems, Several Arrows Later, The Dark Leaves, The State of Gold, and, most recently, the luminous The Natural Lines), matt pond PA has always been a living, breathing organism-one that's constantly changing. One notable mainstay: Pond's longtime right-hand man, Chris Hansen."I named the band after myself, but the fact is that this is a complete collaboration," Pond says. "Everyone I've worked with lives in my head and in these songs."