Natural Thing

AMG Review of Natural Thing

Tom Schulte
All Music Guide

Chicago's best-kept secret, Poi Dog Pondering, gave up an ill-advised venture into electronica. They now return to making beautiful, rich pop music with Natural Thing. Poi Dog is doing what they do best in a studio: rich arrangements with an array of instruments supporting intelligent and moving songs. This 11-member music ensemble combines elements of blue-eyed soul, pop, rock, funk and techno in a unique and unforgettable blend. Plenty of violins, violas, and cellos go into each track here. Poi Dog is the brainchild of its bandleader Frank Orrall, who sings, quite well, on most tracks. However, guest vocalist Carla Prather sings beautifully on four of the tracks. Another foundation member of the group is multi-instrumentalist Paul Mertens, who solos and plays exquisitely on one of any number of flutes, saxophones, the harmonica, or the bass clarinet. Poi Dog's music often earns "joyous" for a description, and this is eminently true.