Poland

1.30.12
Poland
THE SUN AND THE SITTING ROOM -(CLASS M)-Poland’s latest record is a pure delight, a brilliant meld of, say, vintage Randy Newman — when he used lot of clarinets and other band instruments — with Dukes of Stratosphear-era XTC. And, um, I hear a bit of Queen, circa Queen II (the song “Nocturne of Blonde” even hints at “The Fairy Feller’s Master Stroke,” and just for knowing that, this could be the last review I ever write for Dagger). Each song offers surprises at every turn, from sharp melodies (“Toward Albion”), chamber pop niceties (“The Orderly Life of Mr. Barrows) and ELO-type bombast (the amazing final track “Emily and Alice in the Fall, Part 3”). The watchword with this disc is strings: Some combination of violins and violas appear on nearly every track. It’s a departure from the Seattle outfit’s previous efforts that were far more linear and quite transistor-radio friendly (lots of treble, lots of swing), but Sun. . .is no less excellent. It’s is a smart record for all sorts of music lovers,. I absolutely can’t wait to watch this band continue to develop. ANDY GIEGERICH - daggerzine.com

Seattle band Poland’s music is like taking a magical journey back in time. With jaunting instrumentation and melodies and psychedelic tangents, Poland’s new album Please Interstellar Policeman is sure to earn its place as a classic album while Poland becomes a household name.

With numerous influences including The Beatles, Queen and The Kinks, Poland has created a unique art form with their genre-defying music. The layering on this album of guitars, violins, saxophone and percussion captures the listener’s conscious mind and takes you further down the rabbit hole.

Mundo Finé, is energetic and captivating. With a 60s-ish feel, this track entices the listener and will solidify that you are about to listen to a great CD. The next track Your Sunday Book has an almost bossa nova sort of feel with a hypnotizing tune with hints of The Shins. Terrapin Lane has a cheery vibe detailing a fantastical place akin to the type you’d find in a classic English rock song. Each song has a unique flavor and is blooming with creativity and musical flare.

More than just a great album, Please Interstellar Policeman is a portal into the psyche, entertaining, captivating and overall, a creation of genius.

5 out of 5 stars - Swift Reviews, http://swiftreviews.blogspot.com

Poland is the Seattle, pop-rock outfit that's writing some great tunes! Their sounds resonate with the listener as it harnesses parts of the Brit-invasion qualities of early Beatles, while also lending a hint of respect worthy of Jellyfish meets The Doors.

The album is recorded with space and has a very warm touch. There's instrumentation galore. In songs like Your Sunday Book, there's synths, vocals, guitars, and percussive work, blended nicely with strings and pizzicato work - all the while nothing stepping on any toes.

My favorite arrangement is the opening of Terrapin Lane. The string and vocal arrangement really excel.

The next time you're in Seattle, find out where Poland is performing and catch a live show.

RATING: 4 of 5 stars

- Awaken Music, awakenmusic.blogspot.com

Review of MOST OF THEM ARE CLOCKWORK in Daggerzine
Poland
MOST OF THEM ARE CLOCKWORK- (SERIES TWO)-Series Two Records only pressed 300 copies of Most Of Them Are Clockwork. Here’s a suggestion: Track one down. For the second straight release, Poland has provided a highly listenable collection of coolest-kid-in-the-class (you know, the one who quietly sits in the back, waiting for school to end so he/she can get to band practice) songs. As with the brilliant Schoolboy Crush on Che Guevara, the Seattle outfit recalls the best of West Coast jazz, circa 1965, along with Burt Bacharach with a touch of British pop. A more modern point of reference might come from Ladybug Transistor (hey, what are these guys, as well as the Essex Green, doing these days?), circa Albemarle Sound (see King Mary, Clockwork’s gorgeous fifth track). Highlights from Clockwork include Finally September, a brilliant strings-filled backbeat-driven romp that sounds very Left Bankish, and Starling Street, with a haunting beginning that should hit an NPR newscast, as between-story filler, any day now. If there’s any quibble, it’s that singer Mark Romanowski’s voice might come off as a little too detached. If could have something to do with the mix: Vocals aren’t as up front as they probably should be. Still, he’s a nice singer who ultimately compliments the array of strings, xylophones, marimbas, and on and on. Here’s hoping he, and Poland, continue making beautiful music. www.myspace.com/seriestworecords ANDY GIEGERICH - daggerzine.com

Poland
Mar 1, 2010
Story by: Amelia Trask
Seattle-based band Poland has a pretty clear recipe for its music: start with the baroque pop of Left Banke, mix in some Kinks-like dandy rock, throw in a dash of Love, top it off with some of the sighs of the Shins, and voila, it’s Poland. The band was formed in 2006 by longtime buddies Mark Bombara and Mark Romanowski, and the two multi-instrumentalists split guitar duties while also experimenting with everything from the ukulele to the melodica in the studio.

Poland's fourth album, Please Interstellar Policeman, which was released in September, received international play because some of its songs were featured on the BBC 6 podcast and in some Mercedes Benz online promotional content.

"We are currently writing and recording for the next full-length Poland CD, with a projected release date of late summer 2010," says Bombara of his band's future. Besides the new album, Poland is set to play a number of shows in the Seattle area in the coming weeks and is planning a more comprehensive tour of the West Coast for later this spring. - cmj.com

The brainchild of Mark Bombara and Mark Romanowski, Poland plays elegantly quirky indie pop with deceptively effective hooks. On Most of Them Are Clockwork, I am reminded of The Loch Ness Mouse, Tindersticks, and little-known Crunchy Frog band Learning from Las Vegas, especially in the vocals.

The first thing I noticed about this record is that it is a remarkably hi-fi production for prolific bedroom label Series Two. Poland's songs are fully realized and ornamented, with an attention to detail that makes it readily apparent that these folks know their way around a pop song. Take "Von Neumann's Catastrophe," which matches Romanowski's maturely tasteful vocals with a strolling banjo line and a sweet reed organ melody. The result is addictively pleasant. Other superb moments include breezy "Small Talk and Miracles" and eclectic "Almost Metropolis."

Strings, piano and other instruments help make this record engaging even at its less intrinsically infectious moments, meaning Clockwork has a knack for amassing repeated listens. I don't know how this release came to be, but Series Two have uncovered a gem with Poland. Certainly one of the better independent CDRs to come out last year, Most of Them Are Clockwork deserves a spot in any pop lover's stereo.

84%

Matt Shimmer - http://www.indieville.com

FAZER Online Music Magazine
Series Two Records
Poland - Most of Them Are Clockwork
By: Alex Young
The group Poland is an 8-piece rock band containing a string section of a few violins and a viola. The band manages to factor in eight different perspectives of their sound and fits them all into every track, allowing every member to be heard. The performances on Most of Them Are Clockwork are precisely executed and majestically orchestrated. The band expresses themselves through song by distilling moments of life like a photograph explored through music. They paint vivid scenery, enveloping the listener in a relaxing atmosphere that contains graceful guitars and soothing vocals. The violins provide an ambient accent to the guitar licks that are paraded through every track. The bass player impressively bridges the gap between the two varied styles and creates a foundation to make the album far more accessible to a wider audience. The violins sing like birds on the song “Finally September”. It’s a beautiful ballad that sounds like it should be heard on a beautiful day when a forest is finally coming into bloom after a long winter. “Small Talks & Miracles” is like the soundtrack to a shy couple that by chance meeting on the dance floor turns into a happy ending. On “Bell & Howell”, the lyrics ‘Hold my Heart/because it feels like love’, take flight over guitar melodies, weaving themselves around violin lines that take the track to a soulful level. Overall, the album accomplishes the task of being artistic without being pretentious, and sincere without being sappy. Even people who don’t have a taste for elegant classical music could still spin to Most of Them Are Clockwork and enjoy it. Ultimately, the band is a romantic mix of lush arrangements and smooth bass lines that slither underneath funky guitar grooves, that altogether sounds like Jamiroquai jamming with Broken Social Scene. - fazermagazine.com

Poland
SCHOOL BOY CRUSH ON CHE GUEVARA- (SELF-RELEASED)- Straight outta Seattle comes Poland ,a wonderful fairly new indie pop band that has found a home in the Emerald City alongside other pop notables as Math and Physics Club and Patience Please. I reviewed and enjoyed their previous record and now comes this full-length and it's even better The band is led by main songwriter Mark Bombara and he either writes or co-writes all 10 of these songs (his songwriting partner being Mark Romanowski ) and the band I am reminded of the most on these cuts is the High Llamas for their relaxed, easy-going pop nature that is imbued with strings (3 violinists and a cellist) plus the two main guys are both multi-instrumentalists. "Factorytown" is a perfect opener to ease the listener in and then the terrific "Small Talk and Miracles" follows it up with its sawing strings and gentle vocals by Romanowski. Both "Movie Scars" and "Goodbye Blue Monday" are both svelte pop tunes that are smooth as silk and some of this stuff, like the former tune and some others, also could be used in some film soundtracks. If they're not doing it already I think both Bombara and Romanowki could have a future in doing film soundtrack (pays a helluva lot more than trudging along the indie pop scene) but whether they take my advice or not, SCHOOL CRUSH ON CHE GUEVARA (curious title?) is still well worth your time. - daggerzine.com

Past, Present, Future: Poland
Monday, December 28th, 2009

Reminiscent of a night at a creepy carnival, the decidedly 60s feel of Seattle-based Poland is both melodic and discordant. The seven-piece outfit feels very “indie-pop”, but the addition of a string section and some obvious Queen, ELO, and Beatles influences push it up and over the top. The music will keep your attention even if, like me, you shudder at the mere mention of indie-pop. - twogroove.com

Poland - "Schoolboy Crush On Che Guevara" cd (Class M)
Seattle has never been known as a hotbed of indiepop (with a few notable exceptions, of course), but the last few years have given us a number of fine softer pop bands, such as Math And Physics Club, Central Services, Andy Werth and now Poland. Apparently this is the band's second album, but it's the first I've heard from them. Their sound fits somewhere between the sunny, easy-going sound of Simple Carnival and the High Llamas and the sophisticated, almost disco-ish pop of bands like Charming and the Positions. Some of the songs, like the mini-epic "Factorytown" which opens the disc, even successfully combines the two sounds, complete with a string quartet (and the fact that the band's two main members are both multi-instrumentalists helps keep things interesting, as well). I wasn't too into the soundtrack-y instrumentals on the album, but the catchier songs like "Small Talk And Miracles", "Goodbye Blue Monday" and the afore-mentioned "Factorytown" are quite enjoyable and especially welcome on this warm summer morning! - IndiePages.com

Poland
is a bit of a surprise for being from Seattle. The town’s disposition,
as I’ve noticed of late, is not really that sunny. Like the countless
overcast, rain-filled days each year, the city itself has a dreariness,
a darkness that is hard to miss outside the typical touristy areas. For
calling Seattle home, Poland has a much sunnier, more upbeat nature
than one would expect.
But their latest release, Most Of Them Are Clockwork is on Series II Records,
a small Nebraskan CD-R label well-known by regular FensePost readers as
giving us overtly upbeat pop music from around the world. Blending one
part lounge, one part orchestral pop, and a dash of bedroom
psychedelia, Poland’s music is a mix between mysterious and uplifting.
The blend, seemingly awkward, is actually rather nice. - FensePost.com

Poland - "Schoolboy Crush On Che Guevara" cd (Class M)
Seattle has never been known as a hotbed of indiepop (with a few notable exceptions, of course), but the last few years have given us a number of fine softer pop bands, such as Math And Physics Club, Central Services, Andy Werth and now Poland. Apparently this is the band's second album, but it's the first I've heard from them. Their sound fits somewhere between the sunny, easy-going sound of Simple Carnival and the High Llamas and the sophisticated, almost disco-ish pop of bands like Charming and the Positions. Some of the songs, like the mini-epic "Factorytown" which opens the disc, even successfully combines the two sounds, complete with a string quartet (and the fact that the band's two main members are both multi-instrumentalists helps keep things interesting, as well). I wasn't too into the soundtrack-y instrumentals on the album, but the catchier songs like "Small Talk And Miracles", "Goodbye Blue Monday" and the afore-mentioned "Factorytown" are quite enjoyable and especially welcome on this warm summer morning! - IndiePages.com