It’s only been a year-and-a-half since Portland-based Strange Ranger released their first full-length, Rot Forever, but it feels like they’ve gone through a ton of permutations since then. Maybe it’s because each song on their lengthy debut sounded like they were trying on a different hat, or maybe it’s that their follow-up, Sunbeams Through Your Head — a standout EP from last year — was a soft but decisive step forward in the group’s sonic framework. Either way, their upcoming sophomore album, which is called Daymoon, is just as sprawling and ambitious as everything else they’ve put out, but it comes with the added benefit of a stronger sense of self-editing. Its first single, “House Show,” is punchy and concise. They’re channeling the grinding gear-like mechanisms of We Have The Facts era Death Cab and the lineage of other Pacific Northwest bands that Strange Ranger can now count themselves among. Isaac Eiger’s vocals remain mutedly compelling; here, he’s stringing together phrases that sound like they’ve been knocking around in his head for a while (or as they put it: “He’s the kind of high where he’s not talking a lot”), and he serves as an oddly comforting center as the band languidly lurches towards a conclusion. Listen below.

Tracks:
01 “Glow”
02 “House Show”
03 “Warm”
04 “Subaru”
05 “Everything Else”
06 “Hydration Is Key”
07 “Sophie”
08 “Everything All At Once”
09 “Doggies”
10 “Everything Is Happening”
11 “The Future”
12 “Seesaw”
13 “Why Didn’t You”
14 “Most Perfect Gold Of The Century”
15 “Outerlude From Daymoon”

Daymoon is out 10/6 via Tiny Engines. Pre-order it here.