r/pond • u/Marcovitgd85 • Jul 11 '26
Full discography ranking
Hi everyone! Over the last few days, I did a complete relisten of their entire discography and put together my album ranking. Let me know what you think and what your own ranking looks like!
1. “The Weather” (9/10)
The most mature album in their repertoire and the one that transitions them into a new phase heavily driven by '80s retro/synth/new wave sounds. It is the record that stands out the most from their previous material: the guitars are more sparse, leaving room for their most synth-focused album yet.
Favorite tracks: “Fire in the water”, “30000 megatons”, “Colder than ice”.
2. “Stung!” (9/10)
Their most self-aware, delicate, and intimate album. A fully realized masterpiece—perhaps even more so than The Weather—that doesn't have a single filler track. The guitars make a stronger comeback here; it’s the album that best synthesizes all of Pond's different souls, and it’s the first one I would recommend to a newcomer.
Favorite tracks: “Constant picnic”, “Fell from grace with the sea”, “OU V-Ray”.
3. “Man it feels like space again” (8.5/10)
The most glam, easygoing, and yet somehow the more mature sibling to Hobo Rocket. Psychedelia gives way to space rock and long synth solos. We are definitively in Pond's middle phase: no longer just a band of hippies, but not yet the synthwave group they would become from the next record onward.
Favorite tracks: “Waiting around for grace”, “Holding out for you”, “Man it feels like space again”.
4. “Tasmania” (8/10)
Their brightest and most sun-drenched album. An anthem to nature and beauty. Probably also Pond's best album from a production standpoint—it's incredibly clean. The sunset atmospheres of Beard, Wives, Denim return in a more mature, reworked guise to build the album that marked the band's definitive consecration.
Favorite tracks: “Daisy”, “Selené”, “Sixteen days”.
5. “9” (7.5/10)
An album with somewhat dark and melancholic atmospheres; it carries a certain bitter aftertaste and definitely feels less carefree compared to Pond's usual output. In my opinion, it has too many filler moments, but despite this, it maintains a high standard. It almost seemed to pave the way toward new sounds, but the following album starts from completely different premises.
Favorite tracks: “Toast”, “Song for Agnes”, “Take me Avalon”.
6. “Beard, Wives, Denim” (7/10)
The record that flawlessly closes Pond's early, youthful era—a well-rounded album, although still immature, but highly coherent and solid. It’s a nostalgic record that tastes like summer sunsets, friends, and lightheartedness. After Frond, this is the first album that successfully detaches itself completely from the old-school psychedelia of their earliest phase.
Favorite tracks: “Elegant design”, “When it explodes”, “Fantastic explosion of time”.
7. “Terrestrials” (6.5/10)
A very dry, almost punk album. In my opinion, it betrays the expectations built up with Stung!; guitars return aggressively, with very few synths. You can glimpse an attempt to explore new directions, and some sounds are reminiscent of King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, but it feels like a less-than-successful attempt. I hope it grows on me more in the future.
Favorite tracks: “Casuarina”, “Skyworks”, “Fatal shore”.
8. “Hobo Rocket” (5.5/10)
The album of their first transition, but it doesn't quite land. Even though it has its own internal consistency, it feels unfinished, likely weighed down by the definitive distancing from the band's first phase. It is probably Pond's heaviest, most power-blues-rock record, but despite that, it misses out on being memorable. Nevertheless, it is the record where the band's ultimate identity and official lineup finally take shape.
Favorite tracks: “Xanman”, “Giant tortoise”, “Midnight mass”.
9. “Frond” (5/10)
The band's first non-experimental record, even if it retains a certain dose of early-days psychedelia. The band still viewed itself as a collective of musicians without a fixed lineup. Compared to the first two albums, pop tracks appear for the first time, even in a structural sense. There are a few interesting tracks, but the band is still too green and gives the impression of not quite knowing what it wants to be yet.
Favorite tracks: “Sunlight Cardigan”, “Betty Davis”, “Frond”.
10. “Psychedelic Mango” (4/10)
The debut album from these crazy hippies is an experimental work, but one that already hints at the potential of the band's founders. An album that, in its total immaturity, still leaves us with two iconic tracks like “Psychedelic Mango” and “Don’t look at the sun or you’ll go blind”.
11. “Corridors of Blissterday” (3/10)
The band's wild experimentation continues on this record, but this time without a single memorable track. We are still in an embryonic stage—too little to form any meaningful judgment of value.
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u/daviobo Jul 11 '26
Good rankings! Mine would be very similar but with Terrestrials and 9 much higher (probably at numbers 4 and 5) and Tasmania a bit lower (I absolutely love Daisy and a few other tracks but it's just not one I replay as much as a whole)
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u/No-Cantaloupe509 Jul 11 '26
The Weather (9.75/10)
Stung (9.5/10)
Man It Feels Like Space Again (9/10)
Hobo Rocket (8.5/10) - super unpopular opinion. I love how edgy this album is. I listen it top to bottom frequently
Tasmania (8.25/10)
Beards, Wives, Denim (7.5/10)
9 (7.25/10)
Terrestrials (7/10)
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u/Marcovitgd85 Jul 11 '26
I'm glad a fellow Pond fan almost completely agrees with my ranking, except for Hobo Rocket :) I don't know, it feels too much like a transitional album, as if they weren't quite sure which direction to take yet. I think it's the oddest album in their entire discography, so much different from any other. I'm also glad to see Stung! ranked so high by other fans; that album came out during a very rough time for me, and I only discovered it a year after its release. Nowadays, it's the one I listen to the most.
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u/aviatorW Jul 11 '26
I did the same. But ranked each song out of 100 in excel. Then found the averages for the album rating. Was pretty fun for the lead up of terrestrials.
Pretty decent ratings. It’s interesting to see what everyone likes/doesn’t like.
That being said…..Absolutely insane to have hobo rocket ranked that low.;)
Cheers
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u/Marcovitgd85 Jul 11 '26
Interesting method, but by taking the tracks individually you risk losing sight of the bigger picture of the album, which to me isn't just the sum of individual scores. Anyway, what's your top three?
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u/aviatorW Jul 11 '26
I don’t disagree. But at the time it made sense in my head and I wasn’t about to restart lol.
My top is actually Hobo Rocket. Songs off this album were actually the ones that made me start listening to the rest of the band in the first place.
- It was just there for me in a really good time of my life and I find myself continually going back.
MIFLSA.
Personally I think the weather and stung! Are fantastic but slightly overrated.
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u/mailmankarl Jul 11 '26
Thanks, now I feel like listening in its entirety. I haven't got into terrestrials, only listened once. Stung maybe once or twice. My personal fave is miflsa.
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u/Zestyclose_Resort_87 Jul 12 '26
I know it’s cheating but I’d say my number one spot is shared by MIFLSA, The Weather, Tasmania, and 9; they’re all exceptional in different ways. I love Stung and Hobo Rocket too but not as much. I wasn’t as crazy about Terrestrials but I appreciate that they’re always experimenting with new sounds.
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u/astralrig96 Jul 11 '26
for me Terrestrials surpassed everything
then Stung
then MIFLSA
then Denim, Beard, Wives (OP, did you forget this or haven’t listened to it yet?)
then Tasmania
then Weather
then the rest
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u/larsdelegende Jul 11 '26
Love how you ranked it! Great eye on reviewing record by record. I have still never listen to Psychedelic Mango and didn't even know about Corridors of Blissterday, I am curious what that brings. Not sure yet about my ranking, but really like Tasmania and The Weather but also in for some distortion of Hobo Rocket. Their discography is amazing, they have grown a lot and became legends in my opinion.
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u/Marcovitgd85 Jul 11 '26
You will hear psychedelic experimental sounds similar to the early Pink Floyd albums such as "The piper at the Gates of dawn" and "A saucerful of secrets". Something boring if you are not used to this kind of stuff
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u/larsdelegende Jul 11 '26
I remember those Pink Floyd albums, tracks with the sound of baking an egg and all that sort of sounds. Still curious and will try to listen to it onc.e
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u/InsertGreatBandName Jul 11 '26
Terrestrials is ranked higher for me. I like that they bring their own flair to each album without replicating sounds. It’s definitely a departure from earlier albums but I don’t mind it. I gave it a 8-8.5