The glorious RAY posted on their twitter to look forward to an upcoming announcement, which sounded very promising for once, as opposed to all the downtrodden news we’ve gotten recently. “Yes please o’ etherial shoegazing idols , give us something good!! We need this!!”, we were all thinking to ourselves…
And so today, (Which is is actually now yesterday as of this publishing.) the good news was delivered! Have you heard? Listen and listen well, those who believe, and welcome to the light, those of you who are new…
https://twitter.com/_RAY_world/status/1250378525732786176
Yes, Sweet Hipster Moses, RAY is releasing their first album!! I swear the sun came out and bathed the Earth is a pink glow while the Corona virus cowered a little today. Everything just got a little better. And oh, guess what else? For a limited amount of time, the album in it’s entirety is uploaded on YouTube, to let you taste the rainbow a little bit early!
Maybe before I say anything more about the details, I’ll leave the embed right here and let you dive in. So go ahead, breathe in, and savor a full preview of RAY’s very first full-length album, entitled “Pink”…
If RAY’s first EP was called “Blue”, and featured cover art that could have been interpreted as a reference to New order, could “Pink” be thought of as a reference to Boris? Will every release this group ever record have a color scheme? Is this already the greatest art-idol album ever? I feel like a yes is possible to all these questions!
The album has a number of songs you’ve already fallen in love with, like Asuza Suga’s (For Tracy Hyde) “Butterfly Effect”, Elliot Frazier’s (Ringo Deathstar) “Meteor”, and Hata Yusuke’s (cruyff in the bedroom) “The End of the World With You”, but there’s a bunch a really nice new tunes on here, including “Silhouette” written by Hiroyuki Imamura of the band The Florist and another amazing song by Hata called “Everything About My Precious You”, which might be my favorite RAY tune yet…*
Here’s a few other precious gems as well…
And holy goodness, did you catch the extra treat with the final two songs??? Yes, indeed, there are also two classic • • • • • • • • • songs on here! It’s a nice little callback to RAY’s origins that sparks a pleasant nostalgia, but still looks forward to the future with the new life breathed into these versions. (They’re altered arrangements as well, not just “karaoke” covers.)
At this point, I’d be anticipating an opportunity to write a review of this new album, but I guess I just sort of did that. But hey, do yourself a well-deserved favor and love the hell out this preview, and do what you can support to these ladies. I don’t know much about the distribution of this album yet as far as the physical release goes, but like “Blue”, this should ultimately be available to purchase on OTOTOY and iTunes, plus it’ll likely hit the streaming platforms as well.
It’s been a weird, weird year, but one thing we’ll be able to look back on fondly is when this top-contender for the best album of 2020 came out. Let’s give RAY a big standing ovation.
*Ouch, my hands hurt from typing all that name dropping…
