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Jun 14, 2023 By Mark Redfern Photography by Kiernan Francis

New York City via Philadelphia quartet Strange Ranger are releasing a new album, Pure Music, on July 21 via Fire Talk. Now the band have shared its third single, “Way Out.” Listen below, followed by the band’s upcoming tour dates.

Strange Ranger is Isaac Eiger, Fiona Woodman, Nathan Tucker, and Fred Nixon.

“Way Out” features a saxophone solo from Tucker and is inspired by Talk Talk.

Bandleader Eiger had this say about the song in a press release: “I wrote this one while going through my memories of being a teenager in Montana and then it got all biblical for some reason. We produced it at the house in the woods and I remember feeling extremely alert, almost manic working on it late at night. At the time, we thought of it as a sort of condensed Talk Talk song, but I’m not sure if it ended up that way.

Pure Music includes “Rain So Hard,” a new song the band shared in March. Then when the album was announced in May, the band shared its second single, “She’s on Fire,” via a music video. “She’s on Fire” was one of our Songs of the Week.

Pure Music is the follow-up to 2019’s Remembering the Rockets album and 2021’s No Light in Heaven mixtape. The album was written while Eiger and Woodman were breaking up and was recorded in a cabin in Upstate New York during a blizzard.

“With a few exceptions, I can’t tell whose production ideas were whose, when I listen back to it,” said Nixon in a previous press release. “We were literally trapped in this cabin, manically working at all hours, and the energy was crazy, in a fun way.”

“Music makes us transcend the feeling of being alienated from or trapped by the world,” Woodman added. “I want the experience of listening to Pure Music to be euphoric.”

“She’s on Fire” has a bit of an ’80s vibe at the start before it embraces ’90s shoegaze (the previous press release cited My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless). The press release also mentioned disco, house, and experimental pop as reference points for Pure Music.

Strange Ranger Tour Dates:

Thu. June 15 - Philadelphia, PA @ Bonk’s ☾
Sat. June 17 - New York, NY @ 4 Irving Ave ☆
Fri. Aug. 4 - New York, NY @ DROM ✧
Sat. Aug. 5 - Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s ♡

☾ w/ Water From Your Eyes
☆ w/ Chanel Beads, xJermsx, Stylo, Goner & more
✧ w/ Nourished By Time & special guests
♡ w/ Snoozer, TBA

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