Parallel Realms

While STRFKR never really became inactive after landing on several Billboard side charts with 2016s Being No One, Going Nowhere, founding member Josh Hodges followed it with a series of archival demos, and after the 2020 band effort Future Past Life wasnt met with the same commercial success as its predecessors, Hodges issued the solo instrumental album Ambient 1 under the STRFKR banner. Although some of these developments were certainly spurred by the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, it may still come as a surprise to some that the project has re-emerged in revitalized, collaborative fashion with the 17-track Parallel Realms. Essentially merging the best of concepts from previous releases -- including hookiness, melodicism, danceability, ambiance, and experimentalism -- it takes the form of a streamlined alternative-dance outing. To that end, the band has acknowledged the role of Chris Coady (Beach House, Yeah Yeah Yeahs), who was left to his own devices to mix the album. The result is a continually satisfying set of funky, bittersweet synth pop songs that plays out like a nearly hour-long DJ set. Somehow, while remarkably cohesive, it offers a little something for everyone, at least within certain stylistic parameters. Opener "Always/Never" sets the tone with a guitar riff that launches into a sturdy dance-pop groove, which is eventually joined by the airy, octave-doubled lyrics "Must be some way to feel again." That songs implied frown and simple yet stimulating approach to rhythm persist throughout Parallel Realms, which keeps things fresh with varied rhythmic cadences, meters, and tempos as well as the occasional brief "interspace" connective instrumental and changeups like the lusher, delay-heavy "Holding On," more rousing "Feelings," and the French-language "Chizzlers." The latter features heavily processed vocals and squiggly laser-like effects. Hodges melancholy uncertainty then reasserts itself on "Running Around" ("Oh yeah, oh no") and tracks including "Lot of Nice Things," whose driving post-punk offers one of the albums gloomier entries, but only relatively speaking, as the records effervescence never subsides (and that song ends on an exhilarating second chorus). By the time Parallel Realms bids a long farewell with the seven-minute "Leaving," its delivered 55 minutes of songs with a consistency on par with Pet Shop Boys and a soft-spoken sadness thats almost as compelling as its uplifting grooves. ~ Marcy Donelson