Smooth Indie
With a mixture of pleasing indie pop, deep and insouciant vocals and strutting 60's psychedelic guitars, Ray pull off a thoroughly engaging album that's full of life. Opener 'Five Times Cursed' is a highly polished, decadent pop song with eerie guitar melody and introduces the story of 'Death In Fiction', which the band cite as the "death tale of a luckless hedonist who rejoices in all things fictional at the expense of living his own life".
'Days To Come's florid guitarwork has a definite overindulgent 60's quality to it which makes it one of the finest tunes on the album with ebullient harmonies that threaten to break lose from the record at any minute. A triumphant melange of echoing, edgy indie and careening guitar melody, 'This Is A Wave' is another smooth delight, running into the glassy realms of 'Roulette Sin', which is accurately described as resembling a Pink Floyd soundscape with crashing percussion and drifting guitars that stagger to a shuddering peak.
'Little Joy' is a jaunty, but rich and captivating number with an underlying tension that grips the listener while, 'Great Strange Dream' is a more passionate, stirring piece of songwriting that centres more around the vocal melody than many of Ray's other works. Ray's great draw is in the perfectly pitched pop tunes which are all blessed with a certain spark of melodic fervour and keep you listening in. The guitarwork is far from a cohesive backing, but full of lithe and electric hooks and vibrant chords that spill out over the vocals, almost taking the lead half of the time, something that seems rare in current mainstream indie music.