Strange Ranger - Daymoon (2017) Hi-Res

Since emerging from the Pacific Northwest early last year with their debut album, Rot Forever, the duo of Isaac Eiger and Fred Nixon have felt chameleonic in their approach. Each song sounds like something else, but whether they’re Strange Ranger or Sioux Falls, that adaptable nature has never gotten in the way of the integrity of their songwriting, which is always sharp and never apathetic. Daymoon is their sophomore album, a follow-up to last fall’s Sunbeams Through Your Head EP, and it’s as ambitious and varied as everything else they’ve put out. Most of it feels oddly alien, ambient noise and down-tuned interludes that makes it sound out-of-step, a sentiment that’s echoed in their lyrical concerns. “It’s cold lately/ I feel strangely about myself/ And everything else that grows and breathes and sits on one knee/ Keeping me calm until they’re gone,” they sing on “Everything Else,” a clattering moodpiece that’s guided along by broken keys. There are moments when they go for broke and turn in a straightforward rocker — see “Everything All At Once” and “The Future” — and those brief moments of intense clarity make the muddiness surrounding it only more compelling. We’ve already spotlighted “House Show,” “Sophie,” and “Hydration Is Key” from it, and now you can stream the entirety of Daymoon below.