Textured, tight and emotionally muscular, Pohgoh’s "du und ich" is easily the foursome’s most ambitious outing yet, a confident, eclectic release that showcases the band’s strengths — catchy riffs and big dynamics ridden deftly by Susie’s inimitable voice and evocative lyrics — in a bright new light. The band’s four-on-the-floor rock format is augmented by additional vocals and instrumentation, including pedal steel on the slightly countrified “Planet Houston,” and cello and Hammond organ on "Words Are Harder," and the moody, compelling album highlight “Hammer.” Opener “Now I Know,” “House Burned Down,” “Heavy,” and the intensely personal “Over-Under” — about Susie’s decades-long battle with multiple sclerosis (MS) — are among Pohgoh’s best balancing acts ever between hook and heft, driving anthems with just a touch of post-rock edge. Twenty-seven years later, Pohgoh continues to reassess and reassemble its parts in the most daring yet listenable ways. The act’s third full-length is more than another great album; it’s a collective anthem of survival, a refutation of all that would break us down. It’s a record that says we’re in this together, that it’s us against the world.
