The vibe of this track is quickly established by so little as its album art. The art itself is simple: the design comprised of simple circles and desaturated colors bring to mind the “mod” movement of 1960s London fame, bold block letters are placed sideways with the two lines mirroring one another in such a way that reading the band and associated album (“New Colors”) names sets the eyes on a “U”- shaped path. It brings to mind every time that I’d sat with my mother midst the countless records in her father/my grandfather’s collection, picked up a dusty old number still in its sleeve, and perplexedly muttered its title to myself before my mother would cry out, saying something like “What?! Oh, what did I do wrong for you to never have heard Aretha Franklin?! I showed you Blues Brothers, didn’t I, sweetheart?”.
The sound matches the vibe set by the visual element of this track with ease. A tom-heavy drum fill leads us into a slow, bassy groove with a cheery baritone vocalist bearing the slightest of McCartney-esque influence in their swaying delivery—that’s nothing but the very spirit of art as it stood in the 1960s and 70s. While I lament my inability to pick out each lyric for deeper analysis, this muddled mix actually does the song a favor, from what I can understand of its lyrics speaking of “multi-colored super-sonic multi-verse“.
For all these little details that connect this to the British Invasion (in the countercultural sense, for once), I was actually shocked to read that Extra Space is a band based in Brooklyn. The album this track comes from is, itself, said to be “an exploration of the perception of time and the nuance and ‘New Colors’ that give weight and beauty to the most seemingly ordinary moments”. With this context, we can see that “Something Strange” was likely sent to us because of its very nature of exemplifying the album’s core thesis. The drums and bass occasionally wrong-foot the listener, invoking the unsteady gait of a friend, lover, or maybe even both people in one as they tug you by the wrist between each mundane yet beautiful sight to behold in this wonderful world. The song only stumbles from excitement; it only trips so awkwardly because it wants to show you so badly that beauty it managed to capture in the sight of an old sycamore tree.
Put simply, it’s endearing. It becomes even more so when I then read the quote directly from the band attached to this submission:
“On the last record, we did a lot of song sharing and contributing to/expanding upon each other’s written songs, but a chemistry was established, and capturing that was paramount on this record. ‘New Colors’ feels like the first real fruition of this project” -Extra Space.
Yes, this information could only make this track, the concept of this album as a whole, even more endearing to me. This is a unique case, or at least a rare one, from what I have covered in my career for Start-Track. While the record’s final song is planned to be ‘babble’, where the journey leads the listener to a clearly-defined vignette (specifically, standing over and making a pot of soup while a baby plays nearby) that signals a relatively typical story of disorder leading to discipline with respect and success to follow, the reverence and love for life felt in the sound and story of “Something Strange” alone could indicate a grateful cherishing and celebration of the very chemistry that so desperately needed to be captured for this album. That’s what I think, at least.
“Something Strange” is said to be the third release from the upcoming full-length album, “New Colors”. The single will be available to stream via SoundCloud and similar streaming services on February 6th.
Written by Alexei Lee
