REVIEW: Strange Pilgrim — Self Titled (LP)
Hearing Strange Pilgrim’s self-titled debut comes at an oddly fortuitous time. I’ve been giving the Beach Boys a serious listen for the first time in my forty plus years on this rock and I hear a lot of their influence in singer/songwriter/guitarist Josh Barnhart’s compositions. It’s probably me projecting and hearing things. It nonetheless disposes me to hear Strange Pilgrim’s songs in a much more receptive frame of mind than I might have otherwise.
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It isn’t that I wouldn’t have recognized and acknowledged its strengths otherwise. I have ears. Strange Pilgrim kicks off with “More Than I Did” and, if stronger songs follow, the cut serves a critical purpose. Newcomers are introduced to the band’s signature sound for this collection — sometimes dream-like, meticulous productions values yet the songs breathe, and an emphasis on melody. The first song expresses plaintive regret without much poetic gloss and the potent mix of loose, relaxed riffing through the verses with practically lyrical lead guitar sparks the track to life.
Hazy and hallucinatory psychedelia dominate the second track “Staring at the Sky”. The multi-part vocal harmonies heard across this release owe just as much to The Beatles, in all honesty, but there’s a lot of cross-pollination defining the band’s influences. It’s evident in their music as well. “Staring at the Sky” embodies many of Barnhart’s themes of dislocation and isolation without ever broad brushing the mood and, instead, incorporates satisfying nuance into this and other recordings. It’s one of my favorite performances on this release.
“Salt and Seagulls” shares that distinction. There is a clear conceptual vibe present in Strange Pilgrim’s debut as the songs and sound share a unity that few modern collections do. It doesn’t smack of pretension, however. Barnhart and his fellow musicians achieve a quietly dramatic juxtaposition of subversively cheery musical arrangements with Barnhart’s idiosyncratic penchant for specific details and arresting imagery. This track is a peak for that, for sure.
The sleepy waft of “Blue Light” is probably the most pronounced sort of effort in this vein you’ll hear on the album. A lot of it is awash in the by-now typical echo for the band, but it’s an odd thing. You may say to yourself, at some point, so many of these songs sound the same, even tempo, but the weird thing is, you won’t mind. It’s executed with such a polished and emotionally vibrant feel that you can’t help but be enchanted by its aural spell.
“The Mirror” has an almost leisurely heartland rock gait, but Strange Pilgrim spikes it with a brief flourish that propels the song forward. Echoes of Neil Young and Crazy Horse hit me listening to this one. They pick up the tempo more during the album’s second half, a likely self-conscious act building towards the album’s conclusion, and this guitar-dominated tune provides a necessary push towards the finish line.
“No Relief” introduces orchestration into the band’s sound with memorable effects. They aren’t omnipresent but, coupled with the outstanding vocal arrangement, it makes for a fully-realized album closer. Josh Barnhart and his bandmates have discovered a substantive and even marketable sound for delivering the former’s delicate yet bottomless songs. This self-titled debut is a keeper.
Colin Jordan
