Stray – ‘About Time’ (2024)
Described as the first new album for 13 years (since Valhalla) as well as maybe the best by the legendary ‘70s quartet Stray, that overlooks their songwriting guitarist/vocalist Del Bromham’s solo albums under his own name plus other monikers such as The Blues Devils through the decades.
Since their origins in west London during the swinging late 1960s, Stray’s twenty albums are so consistently good as to legitimately be catalogued as classics, some tracks covered by the famous including Iron Maiden and Rush who were big fans.
This new gatefold digipack or vinyl called About Time sits perfectly in their career as a modern addition with current lyrics that aren’t really social commentary but reflections on the modern times we find (or lose) ourselves in during and since the big C, when Stray were also hit in the middle of a UK tour. The intention from the start was to record a rock album that didn’t lose sight of the original distinctive rumbling sound of melodic power and smouldering riffs.
Former vocalist Pete Dyer returns with backing vocals/guitar (he even added harmonica on a John Renbourn LP!) from earlier albums such as Fire & Glass in 1975. Also featured are Karl Randall on drums/percussion (who was on Stray’s Live In Japan and in Blues Devils), Colin Kempster bass on his Stray debut, and producer/studio-owner Simon Rinaldo (Bowfinger; Pearl Handled Revolver) on all keys such as Hammond organ, synthesizer, piano and accordion (Del did some on previous LPS). Each contribute backing vocals too, Cara Randall adds beautiful viola for one track. If you like tight, driving loud and mean but also subtle when appropriate, with enough time shifting riffs to reduce Dr. Who to a blob, then this is up your street and into the hills.
I Am opens with acoustic strumming edging into a rocking but atmospheric solo amid the classic chorus “I am a lion, I am a tiger, I am a rock ‘n’ roll survivor…’ about desire and determination despite obstacles that life can throw at you, the strength to be true to one’s creative self, an anthemic live set opener if ever there was. About ‘the highs and many lows of a lifetime [as] a musician’, the songwriter brought this to the early sessions but wasn’t sure if the band would like what turned out to be a favourite with them that they enjoyed, which in turn ignited energy for his songwriting. Living The Dream awakes with boogie guitar as Hammond sweeps over pounding drums and bass with singalong harmonies a bit like Thin Lizzy about ‘people’s perception of the life you live which isn’t always the reality’. An almost 60s feel with subtle riffing underpinned by Deep Purpleish Hammond adorns the almost apocalyptic (‘What would happen if the sun died?’) but joyous Black Sun, with a kick that that decade sometimes mislaid in ripping time changes just where a ‘60s track might run out of ideas grinding to a halt.
Blood From A Stone on the difference between the wealthy and rest has a double line riff a little like Man in their earlier prog phase, remarking that ‘Talk is cheap, action’s better/are things we’ve always known/you can’t get blood from a stone’. Bells and viola herald the seven-minute-plus Eastern and Middle Eastern flavours with sitar-like drone of Shout: everyone shouting but no one listens to reason; the lyrics should be sent through every letter box in the country. Better Day is during Covid time (without codicil update about exposed lies and consequences), trepidation but hopeful optimism stung through driving rhythm and a nice bass break over piano ending with appropriate wind effect (SFX was a staple early album trope). The limited vinyl run of 500 orange copies ends with Sword Of Damocles, the last song brought to the studio just when they thought the album done, about what riches may result in and that with power comes responsibility as well as risk, over choral backing vocals.
Vinyl limit was reached hence three bonus CD tracks: That Is Not Enough, an almost pop-rocker of wah-wah guitar and thumping tubs for a song on world inequality and useless governmental self-enriching at the expense of everyone else that never changes, including charities down the decades, subjects Del Bromham addresses all his life in words never trite or mere bathos (‘Why are buildings in London empty while many are homeless?’). The erosion of free speech and shouted-down art of conversation (hence its title Raise Your Hand as at a meeting or rally requesting support and the singer too!) ‘with language I don’t recognise’ is a widely held view, and Del says to me that this ‘pretty straight forward rocker’ was probably the first song brought to sessions. The emotive closer Dust In Your Pocket has some acoustic plus accordion for a working people’s lament about a life of toil with nought to show for it, as banksters can do anything to those on credit in this modern era (wasn’t it first done to farmers in the interwar American Depression as relegated to economic university discussion alas?) yet he’s positive about his life choices and stands firm as a worker, definitely an emblem of this band built on honest graft.
Incidentally the booklet mixes up the track order, sadly also replicated in the its lyric order, but is rectified on the cover as above. Recorded in England’s rural Cambridgeshire, starting as early as 2021, the album glides with raw power like 70s Stray. I’m not a big fan of Hammond just big—preferring the bare bone power trio format usually—but it’s subtle here embellishing light and shade as this still ticks all the boxes of what pure rock is or should be about. It is valid now as well as for those recalling the evocative weekly ads near the back of Melody Maker: a tight unit weaving energy and magic again. If I had to make a criticism that’s simple: it could always be longer! Stray’s musical diversity, a signature pace-changing melodic heavy sound richly rooted in blues rock with heart-felt lyrics, shines again here.
Many thanks to Del Bromham for his comments on the songs’ backgrounds.
Brian R. Banks
Stray – ‘About Time’ (Talking Elephant Record)
Stray | Del Bromham | Interview
