ONLY PASSING THROUGH

This is the 3rd album from Pattern-Seeking Animals, following their self titled (2019) and Prehensile Tales (2020) albums. The band was formed in 2018 and consists of current and former members and collaborators of Prog stalwarts Spock's Beard, including guitarist and lead vocalist Ted Leonard, Dave Meros (bass), Jimmy Keegan (drums), and John Boegehold (synthesizers, guitar, mandolin). Apparently they formed to develop songs they were writing that didn't necessarily quite fit for Spock's Beard, which gave them opportunities to explore various other musical directions. They incorporate a lot of pop and power pop sensibilities in establishing great hooks, melodies, and vocals, but also mix in good bits of jazz, folk, classical, and film score prowess, but also never abandon their eclectic Prog approach (with plenty of odd-time curves and proggy instrumental breakouts). Each successive album has been better than their previous one, and here on their third they really soar. Great stuff throughout. What I am most impressed with is how imaginative and inventive the songs and arrangements are. They put in whatever extra instrumentation and arrangement flourishes that will enhance each song (horns, mandolin, sitar, bassoon, violin, cello, specialty percussion). Even the songs that seem like they will be relatively straight-forward pop/rock songs go into very interesting and unexpected directions (such as 'Much Ado', which starts out as an all-out rocker, and then drops into a cool acoustic vibe for the vocals and builds back into a rockin' anthem). From the very opening notes of 'Everdark Mountain', I was hooked, with its unique dark woodland prog sound, and it just takes off from there. Although the album is a bit frontloaded (The very best songs are all in the 1st 5 tracks), it is nonetheless great throughout, with the mini-epic 'Time Has a Way' probably the highlight. The album also includes two 'bonus tracks', which are also quite good, but I think it was a good call to classify these as bonus tracks and not an actual part of the album, as they are both a somewhat different style, and decidedly less 'proggy' than the rest of the album, with 'I'm Not Alright' being a straight rocker, and 'Just Another Day at The Beach' being a fun, lighter pop-rock ditty. Overall, this is among the best albums of 2022). Best Tracks: 'Time Has a Way', 'Everdark Mountain', 'Much Ado', 'I Can't Stay Here Anymore'. Weak Tracks: None. Rating 4.5.