The Ponys - 'Turn The Lights Out' (Matador) Released 19/03/07

In an age where Kate Middleton somehow smugly sashays her tweed ensembles into the best-dressed lists, it seems equine is definitely cool again. Trotting alongside the likes of Foals, New Young Pony Club and Sparklehorse are The Ponys. Less car-crash weird than the last and less neon-coattails of the others, The Ponys slyly trot out a dark, dance floor lassitude.

“Well I’m tired, so uninspired” is their lament to lethargy on the title track, but through their ennui exhaustion pervades a sense of something, in fact, rather inspired and rather inspiring. An antidote to the angular, The Ponys’ otherworldly sonic guitar waves and ebbs are refreshing, if bleak. The wry psychedelia on ‘Poser Psychotic’ is a spine-tingling paean of sublime American weariness of the finest kind. Under the fatigued ambivalence is something truly beautiful: infuriatingly infectious and brilliant beats pervade the moody and muted exterior. Stirring ‘Exile On My Street’ has a lovely looping melody but the shoutyness sometimes detracts from the quirky eeriness the rest of the track has to offer.

Their blend of sinister surf rides on murky, beguiling undercurrent of voices, effects and petulant yearning. The Ponys are noir and pretty: the sonic Black Beauty for glorious, glamorous disillusionment.