"Some tracks sound like Elvis ballads drowned out by faulty styluses and retro sound systems. Others are breathy song-cycles of gospel folk. For all the rich breeze and slinking Tarantino guitars in "Hope To Die", the track more resembles an '80s Mazzy Star-era shoegaze piece for the country purists to languish on. With Pony, Orville Peck has put himself in the boxing ring for his own '68 Comeback Special. He is the anti-hero, steeped in mythology and a necessary anonymity ("sometimes being an alive cowboy is just enough."). But it's the auteur's approach in the queer country revolution. Despite its masked obscurity, it's the tenderness that wins the fight"