Featured Album – Waves – Pray for Sound (post-rock)

Written by Jim S.

Long-time readers will know that my son Nick plays guitar in – and writes music for – a post-rock band called Pray for Sound. I’ve mentioned their previous albums here and here and here.

I won’t repeat what I said in those posts but they will give you a pretty good idea of what these guys are about. I had zero knowledge of post-rock prior to these guys and I’ve confessed it isn’t my number one genre. When people ask me what it sounds like I say Pink Floyd minus the vocals. That is totally not true but it’s the closest I can come.

So as a guy who can be somewhat objective as it is not his chosen music but not entirely objective because, well, you know, what do I think? I am listening to it for the second time and I am digging it. It is NOT mellow relax music. In fact, it’s pretty intense. But I will tell you it’s nice to get out of my comfort zone once in a while.

Check out this tune called “All the Days” and stand the fuck back:

Spotify link

Excerpt from a review at Where Post Rock Dwells blog:

“Everything about this album is so crystal clear, it’s almost as if there isn’t a crystal at all. On my studio headphones, my economic earbuds, or in my 10-year-old car, it sounds brilliant. (The guys have their own studio and so, produced it themselves – ME).

He continues: “It has become an album for my whole life. From the streaming rivulet at the beginning to the babbling brook at the end, and for the crushing tides between, let it all flow over you. Become engulfed in this leviathan album. Most of my list for Album of the Year will be filled with tough choices. This isn’t one of them.” (That’s a little fuzzy. He means this is one of his top albums of the year not that it isn’t -ME).

Here’s the official video for “Waves”

Spotify link

I mentioned in one of my previous posts that they were invited to (and played) the Dunk! Festival in Belgium a few years back. They were invited again for next year. Tickets are on sale and even though they haven’t yet announced the line-up, the early bird tix are sold out.

Dunk! Festival link. 

And in one more interesting thing, the guys somehow got invited to do some kind of China tour! Hell, *I* haven’t even been to China. Don’t know much about that one but it sounds like a hell of a thing. My wife is afraid they’ll wind up in a Chinese prison. Probably will. Hell, it builds character I say.

You can listen to or preferably buy the thing as below. OR you could let the guys starve to death. Your call.

Full album link

As a special bonus, here are some of the bands that inspired this album

Picture of the band below. Nick is the good-looking one second from left. Or maybe it’s just that the other guys are all so fucking ugly. Your call.

25 thoughts on “Featured Album – Waves – Pray for Sound (post-rock)”

    1. I know you’re a hard rock devotee. This is not that but you may find something of interest. Depends in part on your love (or not) for instrumental music.

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        3. Come to think of it, I do too. And I like my jazz to be little to no singing. But I like rock bands that can swing with ease from instrumental to vocals- Allmans, Cream, Phish, DMB, Traffic, Santana. Not only is there a variety there it also highlights a level of musicianship that I enjoy. If a band is incapable of playing a good instrumental, I wonder about that.

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  2. Nice one. I like a wee bit of post-rockery (after all, I come from the land of the best post-rock band ever – Mogwai – obviously). So aye, this is appealing to me a fair bit.

    Yir boy & co. look like a happy bunch of post-rockers, too.

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    1. The guys know of and dig them for sure. As to the picture, they certainly have their fair share of glum pictures. But they have actually all been good friends for years.

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      1. I think it’s hard for any band doing this kind of thing not to dig Mogwai. They’re an exceptional band.

        I looked up Waves when I got home last night and I’ve lined it up for some time today, but I like what I hear.

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        1. Interestingly, the guys put out that Spotify list of their influences and I’ve been digging that. Don Henley? The nice thing is that even though the guys aren’t as famous as Mogwai, these overseas gigs are all by invitation. Which is cool. Bands I was in were lucky to play a bar across the state line.

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    1. That first one? Yeah it’s a good one. Good album. Probably by the last tune I’m done with that genre for a while. But people who go to that festival will listen to an entire weekend of post-rock. For me I’d want a liitle more variety.

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        1. We do. But I’m always telling the guys, Hey, how about if on the next album I come down and lay some cool blues guitar on top of all that stuff. OK, grandpa, they’ve been telling me for the last three albums. Next one! Music Enthusiast (and others) in “Blues/Post-Rock Showdown.”

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        2. I’d like to hear a few blues licks in there. And when I said “we all need a break from the blues” I mean’t the shit those guys keep singing about, like you know the everyday things. That’s “the blues”

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  5. Post-rock you say?
    I shall prepare my beard for a stroking and give it a listen – I enjoyed Everything is Beautiful so look forward to it.

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        1. Best review yet. The reviews have been pretty good. One guy didn’t much care for it, thinking it was too formulaic. But if you’re listening to a given genre (blues, R&B, jazz, etc.) you can only stray so far.

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        2. Alright I’ve listened to it a lot more lately especially as Spotify keeps putting it into my ‘post rock’ Daily Mix and I’ll say it’s one of the best new post-rock albums I heard in 2019. Tempted to shill out for the wax

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        3. That’s great. I’ll let the guys know on their Facebook page. That’ll cheer ’em up. Some reviewer slagged them pretty hard. But most of the reviews have been good.

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