“When The Going Gets Weird” is the latest full-length album by Stray Owls, an outstanding trio based in Mebane, US. After excellent extended plays such as “Cut & Paste Time Machine” and albums like “A Series Of Circles” and “Stray Owls VS Time & Space,” these experienced musicians return with another comprehensive collection based upon thoroughly planned, expertly assembled, and flawlessly performed songs. Soundwise, Stray Owls combines many different but complementary music genres to illustrate such rich and luxurious sonic imagery. Their music escapes all the categorization into a singular style, so you’ll undoubtedly stumble upon some of the finest properties borrowed from psychedelic rock, psychedelic folk, and psychedelic pop. However, they fully stacked this material with some other sonic ingredients borrowed from styles such as progressive rock, space rock, krautrock, art rock, shoegaze, cinematic ambient, alternative, and indie rock. Stray Owls use all these additional sonic ingredients as more than necessary accentuations, decorations, accentuations, and other details that elevate this marvelous collection of songs to an entirely new level while the band remains loyal to the primary sonic directions. Therefore, these experimentations with so many different but complementary music genres resulted in outstanding material that will appeal to not only fans of psych rock but anyone even remotely into expertly assembled and performed music.
As soon as you press play, you’ll notice how Stray Owls seamlessly levitate between various sonic universes. Their music knows no boundaries, as they continuously emit many impressive vocal, sonic, and rhythmic acrobatics. Each composition arrives with a perfect structure, adorned with intricate segments, brilliant ideas, and superb instrumentations. You’ll hear how the calm, soothing, relaxing, ethereal vocal harmonies decorate everything these musicians tried to achieve with their music. The impressive vocal range seamlessly balances low, mid, and high notes while retaining calmness and stability. These vocal harmonies command attention and guide listeners from scratch to finish while emphasizing all the segments and instrumentation with precision and finesse. Tracks like “Daylight,” “Whatever Afterglow,” “Another Lost Mind,” “Ballad Of The Middleman,” and “Scapegoats” are more than perfect examples where vocal harmonies grab the listener by the collar and refuse to let go even after last notes and beats end. In the meantime, the guitars play a significant role in shaping such a perfect backdrop for all the vocals to shine upon. You’ll notice how the interplays between rhythm and lead guitars pervade from all possible sides, wrapping around the listening apparatus and guiding through every segment. The entire collection of magnificent chord progressions, riffs, themes, melodies, harmonies, accentuations, virtuosities, and other sonic maneuvers is one of their strongest weapons in the arsenal. Stray Owls combine mesmerizing, clean, polished notes of acoustic guitar with raw, abrasive, gritty, heavily distorted sounds of the electric guitar, creating a pleasant listening experience worth repeating over and over again. There are many examples where Stray Owls combine these sonic acrobatics, but “Daylight,” “Moonlight Shadows,” “Another Lost Mind,” and “Mandlin” are some of the finest pieces where these dualities between acoustic and electric guitars are vividly hearable. The band also included many synths and keys along the way, spicing things up and elevating the cathartic atmosphere to the max. Those are the moments where their admiration towards psychedelic and krautrock music shines the most.
Of course, these songs wouldn’t be complete without the rock-solid rhythm section. You’ll notice how the equally intricate, vividly hearable, warm-sounding basslines rumble beneath all those guitar layers, providing more than necessary heaviness, clarity, and depth while binding all those orchestrations with drums and offering a generous dosage of additional virtuosities. The experienced drummer keeps everything in line while dictating groove and tempo with cleverly assembled, flawlessly performed, well-accentuated beats, breaks, fills, and other percussive acrobatics. There are moments when the entire band takes a deep dive into experimentation, delivering some of the finest instrumentations for even the pickiest music enthusiasts. Compositions like “Hey Now Now,” “Whatever Afterglow,” “Mandlin,” and “Scapegoats” showcase the brilliance of the entire band, working in cohesion like unstoppable machinery. Stray Owls also included many tracks where their love for experimental and avant-garde music shines in the limelight. You’ll notice how “Mandlin,” “Elemental Static,” “Larry David Lynch,” and “Keep Doing What You Doing” bring some of the finest experimental, ethereal, and otherworldly soundscapes, adorned with many details, nuances, and accentuations. Stray Owls brings the best from each music genre, creating an entire amalgam of marvelous tracks that will deeply resonate with fans of psychedelic rock and experimental music. Besides their astounding vocal, sonic, and rhythmic performances, their latest offering carries more than necessary manipulations with various melodies, noises, and effects. This experimental nature of “When The Going Gets Weird” makes it even more pleasant to the ears.
Stray Owls break all the rules and shapeshift the boundaries of conventional and avant-garde music with such precision and finesse. Their innovative, fresh, unique, versatile approach to all these styles resulted in a psych-rock masterpiece worth revisiting every time you crave intelligent, brilliant, one-of-a-kind music. “When The Going Gets Weird” is available on all streaming platforms. Don’t miss it!
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