Pocket Panda: This Arrangement of Molecules

With a sound often as precious as their name, it can be hard to take Pocket Panda seriously. By adopting a number of feather-light stylistic cues that borrow from sub-Mumford folk and assorted Americana, vaguely electronic Snow Patrol-esque MOR pop and a host of other prevailing pop trends, they craft a pleasantly palatable sound very much of its time. What places them a cut above other bands taking a similarly scattershot approach to these types of varied genre exercises, all designed to capture the zeitgeist to varying degrees, is their undeniable musicality and instrumental prowess.

While the songs and styles themselves might be aiming for the lowest common pop denominator, the arrangements are what will serve to place Pocket Panda above their peers. Clearly talented, theirs is simply too forced an approach at pleasing the broadest demographic to ever fully land. Which is a shame as they are all clearly talented musicians who, were they to focus more on crafting an original sound than an amalgamation of currently-popular styles, might very well have something far more interesting to say.