Tired Pony

The Place We Ran From (Mom + Pop)

By Melissa Bobbitt
Published: October 2nd, 2010 | 7:00pm

On paper, Tired Pony is a heavenly alignment of talent: Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol, Peter Buck of R.E.M, super producer Jacknife Lee, and Richard Colburn of Belle & Sebastian, plus cameos from Zooey Deschanel, M. Ward, and Tom Smith of Editors. The magnitude of these artists' combined force is unbelievable. On record, however, The Place We Ran From is like an herbal evening tea: There's a faint, soothing aroma and taste, but without the sugar and caffeine of its daytime (or day job) blend, it's beddy-bye time. Lightbody reportedly imagined this project to be country-tinged, but if that's so, then it's Johnny Cash on Soma.

The Place starts where so many better thought out albums end: with a dirgy lullaby. "Northwestern Skies" shuffles along as a zither chauffeurs the listener to dreamland. It's pretty, but provides no incentive to stay awake for the rest of this drowsy album. The Snow Patroller's always had a weakness for weenie-rock (see the overplayed "Chasing Cars"), but Tired Pony is even more emasculated. Whatever electric guitars Lightbody may have kept after 2003's Final Straw (Fiction/Interscope) are put out to pasture, replacing them with flaccid violins ("Point Me at Lost Islands") or yawning vocals from Deschanel ("Get on the Road"). Those guitars try to rebel and scream at the finale, the alt-rock storm of "Pieces," conjuring the effect of waking from a bad dream. Ultimately, Tired Pony is less like Buck's R.E.M. and more like REM—the sleeping behavior.

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Mom + Pop Records