Featured Album – Waiting Room – Pray for Sound

Written by Jim S.

I have written about my son Nick’s band, Pray for Sound, here and here. They bill themselves as a post-rock* band which – for the uninitiated –  Wikipedia defines as “a form of experimental rock characterized by use of rock instruments primarily to explore textures and timbre rather than traditional song structure, chords or riffs. Post-rock artists typically unify rock instrumentation with electronics and are often instrumental.

Although firmly rooted in the indie or underground scene of the 1980s and early 1990s, post-rock’s style often bears little resemblance musically to that of contemporary indie rock, departing from rock conventions. Elements may be borrowed from genres such as ambient music, krautrock, IDM, jazz, minimalist classical and dub reggae.”

Interestingly, and for reasons I can’t explain, the post-rock genre seems to be far more popular in Europe than it is in the States. In fact, the band played the dunk! Festival in Belgium (and US) last year and may be returning next year.

Anyway, I use the occasion of their latest opus, Waiting Room, to introduce – or reintroduce – you to their sound. Of this album, PFS says, “Waiting Room is a bit of a departure from our previous releases and is much more laid back and ambient. After returning from our European tour in 2017, we were excited to write new music together. Unfortunately, to us, our demos were sounding a lot like our previous records. We already did that and covered that sound.

We decided to temporarily take a step back and dive more into the world of synths and lo-fi ambience. These songs are a lot more stripped back. Some follow standard verse/ chorus structure. Some are built on a single part. We played with lots of different writing techniques and it helped reset our minds musically.”

I listened to this album a couple of times and yes, it is more ambient, quiet and somewhat hypnotic. This is not good-time party music. (My son’s other band, Color and Sound, does that.) This is lay back, smoke a j and relax-on-a-Sunday-morning music.

Here’s the kick-off track, “Heywood.”

Spotify link

Here’s one with some nice acoustic guitar. It’s called “Trees.”

Spotify link

Now I would hardly expect you to rate this album highly or even at all despite your (doubtless) deep and abiding affection for the Music Enthusiast. But on a scale of 1 – 10, feel free to give it anything from 8 (I was gobsmacked by its beauty) to 10 (Makes Sgt. Pepper seem like a piece of crap.) 😂

You can find the album on YouTube and Spotify and buy it on Bandcamp if you’re so inclined.

*A fairly music-knowledgeable friend asked me why it’s called post-rock when any of a thousand genres could be called that. I have no idea, frankly.

 

dunk! Festival Belgium 

 

16 thoughts on “Featured Album – Waiting Room – Pray for Sound”

  1. Good afternoon, sir.
    I felt the compulsion to stroke my beard… did someone say post-rock or dunk! records?
    This is, indeed, very fine stuff and I enjoyed both pieces a great deal. Cracking pair of compositions with some lovely textures. Right up my street.
    I shall venture off to explore in more depth and ensure my scorecard is the correct way up least I deliver an unwelcome 6.

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  2. Very good. Very good indeed. I’m partial to a wee bit of post-rockery shenanigans, so I’ll be sure to investigate further and highlight to a few post-rockery fond pals, too.

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  4. Just listened to the album. “Quiet, hypnotic” yeah I would agree. It certainly fits and creates a mood. Good stuff. I will spin again when the mood strikes.

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    1. Yeah, it’s about as far from that roots rock we love as you can get. But it’s just right for that meditative mood. Me, I’d have a hard time being in the band because I’m always wanting to bend strings. I’m like AC/DC. I don’t have a ‘mellow’ setting.

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        1. That’s more like what they usually do. But they intentionally tried to not repeat themselves. Couldn’t tell you what they see as their ‘core’ sound but I bet it’s closer to that.

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        2. I would bet that the next time out they will pull that stuff out. Good to scratch the creative itch but also good to wallow in what you originally felt. Combination. I’m hooked into the first album. I like the restraint and then release aspect.

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        3. They like to crank it out live. While we’re talking about it, here they are at a club in Cambridge. That’s Nick on your left wailing away.

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