That’s the thing with Pennies by the Pound. On the one hand, they can plow sonic furrows through prog pastures, sowing ornate sonic seeds, and planting crops that bloom with exotic musical fruit. On the other, they can fire off pop-aware salvos like their latest single, “The End Times”.
I probably said as much when I first encountered them and wrote about the most excellent “Indigo Screams”. (Checks notes. Yes, indeed I did.) But that ability to walk a fine line, though, what is usually such disparate paths, is worth mentioning again.
“The End Times” sees Pennies by the Pound dancing deftly between these worlds. They take the innovative musical arrangements, succulent tones, and intricate textures of the progressive rock world and yet manage to merge and meld those elements into the most infectious pop songs. And at four minutes and forty-four seconds, they manage to do all that in about the same amount of time it used to take Rick Wakeman to merely put his wizard’s outfit on.
Music made between pop and a hard place. What’s not to love?
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