First Impressions: Last Rays of a Dying Sun by Rain Parade

I’m skidding through the spacetime continuum this morning: fabled Paisley Underground band Rain Parade, whose 1983 debut Emergency Third Rail Power Trip still glimmers like a star in the night sky, released its first album of all-new material since the 1980s on Friday. Last Rays of a Dying Sun is a remarkably evocative set of 11 songs.  

For those not in the know, the band dates to the early 1980s, when college roommates—and guitarists/vocalists—Matt Piucci and David Roback (1958-2020) recruited Roback’s brother Steven on bass, Will Glen on keyboards and violin, and Eddie Kalwa on drums to flesh out the sound they heard in their heads. David’s stint with the group proved to be short-lived, however, as he went on to helm Rainy Day and then form Opal with Kendra Smith. The band soldiered on, releasing the excellent Explosions in the Glass Palace EP in 1984 and appropriately named Crashing Dream album in 1986, but success failed to follow. In truth, like most of their L.A. compadres, they were out of step with the times. The era’s successful acts were primarily MTV-approved cartoons; shimmering psychedelia and garage rock, unless performed by Prince, was out.

Last Rays, which finds Piucci and Steven Roback together again, echoes the group’s long-ago sound in the best possible way. The guitars are as liquid as ever, flowing like rivers through some songs, while harmonies fly like Jayhawks (circa the Mark Olson years) through others. The Peterson sisters (of the Bangles) and Moore Brothers further the colorful vocal dimension. But while the songs trade in the psychedelic hues of their forebears, they’re not nostalgic fodder. The lyrical laments are things those of a certain vintage can and will relate to. ‘Share Your Love,” for instance, talks about repairing proverbial bridges before death makes it impossible. Such loss and longing are undercurrents throughout, though the lyrics are impressionistic enough to be taken in any of several ways. I hear “Sunday’s Almost Gone,” “Forgetfulness” and “Left the Fire” as being about dementia, for example, but that could well be me bringing my experiences with it to the fore.

Whether one is old enough to have purchased Emergency in a college-town record shop in the mid-‘80s, as I did, or young enough to have discovered them secondhand, Last Rays of a Dying Sun is a worthwhile listen. You’ll hear echoes of Pink Floyd, the Beatles and more in the songs, but you’ll also hear aspects of your own life in the sonic waves.

The track list: