Album of the Week: Going Out - Strange Relations
On "Ceremonies", Strange Relations details an endless night of "going out" sporting their best blazers, getting pool sharks to pay for drinks, the need for more and more relayed in the restless energy of the track. Though it's the second single on their Going Out EP it sets the mood entirely, pulsing synth pop with a dark underbelly, a message of empowerment, dreaming, desire.
Going Out brings together the band's influences of dream pop, shoegaze and post-punk into a glittering, imaginative EP. "Drift," sees the band at their most disinterested, the quick kiss off declaring, "if I wanted I would care about all the things you cared about." In a little more than two-minutes this guitar-driven opener is the first taste of the powerful weight of their message. "Predation," sees a noticeable slow-down, with a warning of, "you're not gonna wanna get in my way," repeated over sinister guitar and drums, distant vocals echoing in the background. The ideal of "Predation," an action of attack or preying, palpable in the vocals of Casey Sowa, her cautioning reinforced with a sudden change in tempo from band mates Maro Helgeson and Nate Hart-Andersen. Closer "Weeknites," has a relentless guitar line, thoughts from an insomnia ridden night spoken rapidly. Sowa questions whether dead friends can read her thoughts, see her masturbating; their chorus seemingly calling out the meaningless of a first love, "she was only the first one, not the one you care about."
Strange Relations provides a reminder to take ourselves into account, to seek out the things we desire and hold to them firmly, to have a night of excess, a moment for us.