Pony Girl - 'Highways'
Ottawa-Hull based indie band, Pony Girl’s latest cut ‘Highways’ is a lilting, reflective track, encapsulating the leap of faith required to open your heart to someone.
A culmination of their sonic exploration of the raw and ethereal, the song stands as testimony to artistic growth. In true art-pop style, the whole package—music and video—are allegorical. Beyond signposts and tarmac, motorways represent life’s intricate map, paths travelled, and the neural pathways that anchor us to each other and the past. In the band’s own words:
“Highways are the shape of our hearts and minds as we’re falling in love, expanding roads of connection that stretch out through time. New feelings are so pure and fragile—the song swerves as you get lost, then the backbeat guides you home. The journey’s never a straight line.”
Brimming with the uncertainty and self-conscious restraint of new romance, Pony Girl’s latest track feels like an intimate moment shared between lovers stargazing on a late night drive. Sultry, androgynous vocals and stripped-back beats instantly bring the XX to mind, with trippy undertones that build up to a hallucinogenic reverie. There’s a hint of Little Dragon, and the synth-backed highway metaphor invokes the spirit of electronic pioneers, Kraftwerk’s, Autobahn. Under the Radar notes its entrancing haze of effects, with a sound that: “is almost narcotic, locking you in a psychedelic blend of textures, rhythms, and minimalist lyrics.”
Bridging audio and visual is a mellow video animated by Stephanie Kuse that reflects the euphoria of new love and the empowerment of surrendering to it. After a spacey, piano-laden breakdown, darkness gives way to daylight. Balloons, flowers and sunshine shimmer across the screen as the track sparkles toward its close, and listeners are left with a sense blissed-out of satisfaction. Behind the pink blur of neon signs and minimalist images are hints of the darker themes that run through their upcoming record, ‘Laff it Off,’ but the sense of foreboding goes unrealised.
In the ever-fluctuating indie scene, Pony Girl is true to form, oscillating between buoyant optimism and introspective musing. On ‘Highway,’ the band’s dedication to storytelling is as pronounced as their polished, consistent brand—a sharp contrast to their experimental live performances. On stage, audiences can expect unpredictable, improvised sets that lay songs bare and, as vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Yolande Laroche says: “transport audiences somewhere else.” Each time the band plays, they bring something novel to the performance, blending edgy and experimental art pop with classical influences. As an album, ‘Laff it Off’ is charged with raw emotion and unfiltered energy, rumbling between laid back hits like ‘Highways’ and post-punk driven cuts akin to the titular track.
With the new album out on the 27th October and a slew of live performances in Canada coming up in November, Pony Girl’s kaleidoscopic interpretation of glowing indie-electro-pop-rock is nothing short of a tonic.
Words by Imogen Sharma
