Pop Filter - Ray and Lorraine’s (2024)

Australian indie collective Pop Filter have made a sound out of excitedly approaching any style that strikes their interest. Their first two albums were quickly assembled out of loose, low-stakes recording sessions, and 2023's CONO was more pored over in terms of production and songwriting, but maintained the band's tendency to embrace various styles that changed radically from song to song. Pop Filter's fourth album, Ray & Lorraine's, continues this ethos, this time sprinkling in some pronounced synth pop and '80s radio influences among the band's regular rotating slideshow of baroque indie rock and wistful slacker sounds. Opening track "Fragile" kicks off with a combination of huge synth bass and insistent drums that sounds almost borrowed from Rush's "Tom Sawyer." This is an unlikely reference point for a band as tuneful and sophisticated as Pop Filter, but the FM radio rock elements are soon joined by more delicate vocal harmonies and various swirls of interlocking melody from synths and guitars. It's a lovely if unpredictable start to an album that throws several curveballs. Before "Fragile" ends, there's a barrage of distorted drum fills, then a quick fade to the song's main theme being played on out-of-tune acoustic instruments. "All Night" continues the nods to synth pop with cheeky sine wave melodies intermingling with clean guitar chords and dry drums, and "Strawberry" approaches its style from several different angles: pushy treated drums, dark and gritty synth sounds, and unexpected blooms of heavenly, reverb-coated pedal steel guitar. Much as with Pop Filter's other albums, Ray & Lorraine's doesn't stay in one gear for long. "Documentary Footage" is a soft, lonely acoustic tune backed up by full string arrangements, and "For Me" is even more chamber pop, with a solid Manchester groove and a loop of an orchestral snippet simultaneously bringing to mind the Verve, the Clientele, and Jens Lekman. No two songs go in exactly the same direction, which has become standard for Pop Filter. It's another album of unrestrained colors and ideas, brimming with friendly hooks and songs that take hold with their familiarity before sinking in quietly as they start showing their unique details.