Nabbing my vote as one of the finest contemporary bands to be had, Rainy Day Saints came barreling out of the gates with yet another electrifying disc.
Logging in as the Cleveland, Ohio band’s fourth full-length album, All These Strange Ghosts basically picks up where their previous efforts left off — which is a good thing, of course. But this time around, Rainy Day Saints expose an increased awareness of the psychedelic garage rock realm they exist in.
Ruled by a loud and terrifying riff, “Where Are You?” sizzles and stutters with heady space-age motions, and the bopping “She’s Long Gone” fuses such jiggling gyrations with a dollop of homespun country pop. Seething with anger and confusion, “Lose My Mind” and “All Gone Wrong” are freaky hard-rock statements, the skittish “Sylvester Greene” favors quirky paisley poked persuasions, and the title track of the record hitches a thudding Bo Diddley-inspired beat to a swirl of surrealistic shapes and sights.
Oodles of cool guitar work lines All These Strange Ghosts, while the haunting howl of a saxophone adds a soulful touch to much of the material. Frenetic drums and crackling keyboard antics are also utilized in the aggregation. Stirring harmonies, defined structures and creative and catchy melodies are part of the plan as well.
Imagine fragments of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon album interacting with the Magic Mushrooms, the Smoke, Tomorrow and Alice Cooper, and that’s a relatively accurate assessment of All These Strange Ghosts. Wired tight with power and presence, the disc captures Rainy Day Saints reaching the highest plateau of their career so far.
Here’s a band capable of pumping new life into a style of music, that when performed in the right hands, still sounds as revolutionary as it did years ago.
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