Pond Transformed A Madonna Classic Into A Psych-Pop Stunner For ‘Like A Version’
You need to see Nick Albrook's dance moves.
When it comes to Like A Versions, one of the most popular sub-genres is ‘all-male band covers pop star classic’.
It’s often a smash, but sometimes, it can be a little too ironic for our tastes, as if it’s a bit of a joke. Luckily, that’s not the case with Pond’s take on Madonna’s seminal ‘Ray Of Light’, which stretches out the song’s esoteric synths into something slightly more psychedelic.
The six-piece dropped into the triple j studios off the back of the recent release of Tasmania, their eighth (!!) album. They performed ‘Daisy’, before moving onto Madonna.
According to Jay Watson, he absent-mindedly played the beat during practice, and they went from there.
“It also only has two or three chords in it,” he says, “which is also good for Pond because our tiny pea brains cant handle more than that!”
The cover doesn’t do too much differently from the original, mostly just giving it a distinct Pond wash-over by replacing the decidedly 2000s synths with some the live band and modulators. Nick Allbrook’s voice fits pretty perfectly too, matching the shrillness of Madonna’s original — but it’s really his moves that make it, as he bops up and down, jerks around and just generally exudes far more energy than we ever could in a breakfast radio slot.
Watch the performance below, and, if you’d like, read our interview with Allbrook about the excellent Tasmania.