Fazed on a Pony - swan
2025 • MERITORIO RECORDS & MELTED ICE CREAM • INDIE ROCK / ALT-COUNTRY
93/100
There’s always a before and after. Before and after you took that job. Before and after that rejection letter. Before and after that diagnosis. Before and after you moved into a place of your own. Before and after you met that person, or lost that person. You hardly see the distinction in real time because the shift is not sudden—until it is. Peter McCall, the man behind the moniker Fazed on a Pony, cannot and will not help you recognize the moment everything changed, nor will he white-knuckle the bittersweetness that accompanies it. But, in the ten songs that make up swan, he holds the moments gratefully and loosely, letting them come and go as they please, and inviting you and me to do the same.
Released today, January 23, on Melted Ice Cream and Meritorio Records, swan is Fazed on a Pony’s second full-length album. McCall has said little, if anything, regarding what swan is about. To the extent that they speak for themselves, the lyrics are vivid, teetering on the knife’s blade of melancholy and euphoria. You get the sense that his voice is about to break, though in which direction I cannot tell, on lines like, “I will be what you need when you need me; tell me how” (“Wrong Party”). Overlaying his open-ended yet intentional lyrics on instrumentation that ranges from the jangle of The Beths to the skronky guitars of Good Looks, the songs feel instantly familiar. On my first listen to swan, my excitement was akin to revisiting a summer camp that I grew up attending and that felt like a second home. And still, it is fresh, with left-turns that, in the hands of a less capable artist, would swallow the project whole.
Each song has its own flavor, from looping finger-picked chords (“The Perfect Swan” and “Time to Turn”) to straightforward guitar music (“Flashes”) and even country-fried campfire songs (“Heart Goes Blank”). While the songs are distinct, none feel out of place. Take “Stupid Song,” for example. Over Field Medic-type drum machine beats, McCall provides syncopated, staccato lines: “Show ‘em what’s pent-up; hit ‘em with living; hit ‘em with life and the vision.” It is an outlier on the album that is just as welcome as the others, an accent wall, if you will. swan’s weirder flourishes are compelling because they fit perfectly, revealing McCall’s masterful ability to introduce new ideas sideways, so that by the time you realize the new thing, you already know it well. Otherwise, lines like “Pale moon, pink spoon, one start, then two” (“Not Even Trying”), which one might expect on a This Is Lorelei track, would derail the entire operation. But McCall knows the oddities fit, his confidence is contagious, and his craft is sharp, so all you have to do is follow along.
McCall’s longing to make promises, frustration at the inability to do so, and dogged hope in making them anyway are, perhaps, the most consistent themes. It’s also where the album nods at the emo genre—in substance and form—with layered vocals conversing with each other and extended, repetitive outros driving it all home. His longing compels him to promise, “I’d wait forever, if that did any good” (“Wait Forever”), and, “I can’t wait to be the best at everything” (“Time to Turn”). Despite his good intentions, his faculties fail him: “When I tried to explain, the words came, then my heart goes blank. And I don’t think I’ll ever have the means to pay you back” (“Heart Goes Blank”). But, like Sean Maguire’s persistency achieving breakthrough with Will Hunting—“It’s not your fault”—songs like “Wait Forever,” “Rising Star,” and “Anything Else” know that you are not ready for them to go, gently holding the moment and building patiently toward abreaction. McCall understands that presence is sometimes the best you have to offer.
McCall is a trustworthy narrator because he seems to have learned life lessons but does not pretend to know it all. He’s self-aware: “Nothing feels better than mistakes I judge you for. Every human thing I do, I get to know you more and more,” he sings on album closer “Anything Else.” “And I never want anything else.” The songs on swan are the friend who always has the right answers, but only because they have experienced gain and loss and are mature enough to see each for the fleeting moment that it is. Like that friend, there is much to learn from them, but they are also simply a pleasant hang. So hang with them. They will not ask much of you, but they can keep you in the here-and-now.
NBA COMP: STEVEN ADAMS
In addition to also being a fellow kiwi, Adams is an unsung player who lets the game come to him and deserves more flowers.