By Shea Roney

For half a year I held a radio show hour that began at 2am and ended at 3am. As I walked home through the city of Madison, WI I couldn’t help but to always notice the ghostly feeling that surrounded me. A place once awash with bad drivers, scattered streetwalkers and constant noise pollution now sits still in a haunting and contemplative silence. 

Strange Ranger’s new album, Pure Music, establishes a sense of presence in the midst of alienation and emptiness. It’s this lonely feeling that comes when the world feels largely unobtainable. Originally from Portland, Oregon and now based in New York and Philadelphia, Strange Ranger are not your normal band, meaning they are not exempt from experimentation when it comes to trying to label their sound. On Pure Music, they establish elements of the timeless nostalgia of 80’s shoegaze with the addition of glitch pop and even hints of disco dripping and sweating throughout an extensive and seamless journey. 

The opening track, “Rain So Hard” is nothing short of ecstatic. With an anthemic opening synth drone, singer and guitarist, Issac Eiger croons with a polite and whispery observation of “like a dropped call.” But as Fiona Woodman, the band’s other vocalist, sings “how do I get out of this movie now?” there is an established setting for the album. Somewhat of an empty city landscape drenched in shadows and a skyline sprinkled with fleeting lights. 

The soundscape seamlessly blends into “She’s on Fire”, the lead single for the album, with an ascending line of synths and a snippet of Woodman asking “Is this all happening?” Like looking out of a speeding car in the rain, the band swerves between melancholy and anger when the bass drops out and the sonic sound glitches behind the harmonious chorus. 

Just when you get comfortable with the warm synth work and flowing walls of sound, the band swerves into a new direction. The song “Way Out” resembles a dreamy shoegaze classic until the last thirty seconds when an ill-tempered saxophone erupts through the guitar distortion. “Blue Shade” starts as a menacing new wave tune that sludges through elongated vocal phrases and cinematic synthesizers until it turns into a sweaty house track. The band makes the transition of sorts appear complete until the house beat dies into an acoustic guitar that is fighting to stay alive. 

Side B of the album kicks off with the subtle dance groove, “Blush.” The drum track is one that resembles a disco groove while the guitar chunks dance around the neck. The song soon breaks into a moment of dueling saxophones; a sound that is reminiscent of the moody city imagery that comes out of Hollywood. Woodman’s soft vocals still hold their ground, adding a softer texture in the midst of the controlled burn that is the extended outro to “Blush.”

One thing that is consistent throughout Pure Music is the shadowing of Eiger and Woodman’s vocals. Almost like the ghosts we feel around us, Woodman’s voice lightly follows Eiger as they sing “Wide Awake/You’re out cold” on the track “Wide Awake.” The thumping staccato back beat of bass and drums give space to the airy synths and Woodman’s swaying chorus. 

The strongest lyrics from the album come from the song “Ask Me About My Love Life,” in which Eiger and Woodman try to see eye to eye with the issues that are out of their control. With lines like “the old Pennsylvania has bitten the dust” or “Christmas comes easy when daddy gets paid” lean into the most specificity of the crumbling world around them. So when it does reach that moment where footsteps echo and the stoplights are the brightest focal points, Pure Music stands as a hand to hold in the quietest moments of the night. It’s something that isn’t quite there to the eye, but its presence can be felt.

Strange Ranger oversteps the feeling of alienation by building a world to be surrounded in. Through 10 tracks, Pure Music drifts so seamlessly through styles and sounds that, in the end, creates something that is utterly euphoric.