Embracing The Dark And Bleak
"For these are dark, dark old days, dark days are a falling" laments Nev Bradford on Ray's epic 'Dead Eyed Angels', and never has one line summed up an entire album so aptly. Don't be fooled by their name, Ray most defiantly shun any light uplifting number in favour of languidly melancholy epics. With a defined nod to Pink Floyd and sombrely poetic lyrics to rival Nick Drake, Ray firmly embrace the bleakness and dark, maintaining a drowsily unperturbed stance throughout the album.
Deep rich vocals croon roughly against twinkling guitar playing and nimbly refined drumming on each track as Ray unleash their expansively sombre second album in under a year. Tracks like 'Godspeed to You the Avalanche' and 'Greatest Race for the Sun' accentuates Nev Bradford's rich and full vocals as the understated and yet epically unhurried instrumental fades into the background, bizarrely melding every section of the song together. And that seems to be the key for Ray.
Virtually every track on Daylight in the Darkroom simply sweeps along at a gentle almost solemn pace, enhanced by the vocal styling of Bradford and the band's poetic like lyrics. Straying ever so slightly from this formula is 'Highlight' which appears to attempt to take on its namesake and actually inject a little oomph and variety into the album simply by tweaking the tempo slightly and rejecting the melancholy for a few minutes. It doesn't last though and soon Ray are back where they are more comfortable, in a world that is very bleak and grey and any ray of light is banished, never more so than on the disillusioned war extravagance of 'Dead Eyed Angels' that is so alike to Pink Floyd David Gilmour will probably be tracking the band down for royalties. 'Dead Eyed Angels' is undeniably the stand out track of the album and evidence of Ray's musical capabilities, if only they could add a touch of variety to their album.
Encompassing every style of ballad imaginable, Daylight in the Darkroom meanders along a path laden with moody melodies and saddled with a ton of gloom for good measure. Lacking any adjustment in tempo or style, Ray appear content to churn out epically proportioned tales of woe that singularly are wonderful but when clumped together seem to merge into one. Towards the end of the album inertia starts to sneak in and there is a sense that the tracks roll into one another without any noticeable definition, somewhat of a tragedy considering their lyrical brilliance and the musical soundscape that Ray appears so capable of creating.
By the end you are willing Ray to produce a track with just the slightest adjustment to tempo or one that gently lunges, just something to liven the album but its not to be. With so much potential and a style so far removed from every other act that's swamping the music world at present, Ray certainly stand out and could be the band to show that music isn't just for the teenies but for their parents too if only they could shed a little light into their apparently grey world.