It’s probably time to talk about this album because I’ve been obsessed with it the past couple of weeks. This here is not cutting-edge blogging, seeing as how it was released in March, but you understand, don’t you?

No matter, sometimes it takes time for a record to reveal itself. And I’m not sure what made me check it out – though I think the sorta creepy-cool cover had something to do with it. The Ponys also rolled through Phoenix a few weeks ago with Deerhunter and, alas, I missed it due to work obligations. I think the regret made my want burn more.

And now Turn the Lights Out is one of my favorites of the year. (To recap, favorites of the year so far include: Low, Drums and Guns; El-P, I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead; The National, Boxer; Busdriver, RoadKillOvercoat; and, now, the Ponys, Turn the Lights Out.) Knowing nothing of the Ponys’ previous efforts, I also was intrigued that a friend, who plays in punk-rock buzzsaw Tokyo Electron, talked up the Ponys; I’d figured our musical tastes were somewhat divergent, and here we’d found a common ground, some meeting point between his taste of punk and mine of hazy, guitar rock.

I guess, in a way, that sums up what I like about the record: The tempo and energy just about approach its punk roots, but it always pulls back into swirling, gray-cloud guitars. Chunky synths and distortion are the name of the game here: reverb, reverb and a little more reverb.

• The Ponys | Double Vision

Daytrotter hosted a session with the Ponys in March.

Matador has another mp3 available for Poser Psychotic, about which singer Jered Gummere explains to Daytrotter: “To sum this one up, it’s basically about people who act crazy even though they’re not, so people think there is this really crazy cool artist when they’re just a fucking poser.”

And if anyone has the unreleased Festival Ghost, I’d be in your debt if it were to magically appear in my e-mail inbox.