Formed originally as a side project for John Boegenhold to place songs which didn’t fit his current band, Pattern-Seeking Animals (PSA) have evolved to become one of the prog scene’s more prolific outfits, with Spooky Action At A Distance being the band’s fourth album since 2019, and it’s as eclectic and as intricate as their three previous releases, whilst retaining the same sense of intimacy and melody. The album title has something to do with a quantum phenomenon known as entanglement, which Einstein described as Spooky Action at a Distance. No, I don’t understand it either!
Lyrically this is a very ambitious album, with intelligent lyrics and socially topical themes being explored, which includes the life of a conflicted soldier before/after WW1 (‘Man Made of Stone’), an ageing seeker on the path towards enlightenment (‘What Awaits Me’) and someone’s girlfriend leaving him because he’s a conspiracy theorist (‘There Goes My Baby’).
PSA blend prog rock with strong melodic rock, alongside some great hooks, and they do so in an appealing way. Everyone in the band is a top-drawer muso, with Ted Leonard being no mean guitarist. One of the really positive things about PSA is all the musicians get to shine, with no one dominating proceedings, showing despite their ‘supergroup’ tag .. all being past or present members of Spock’s Beard .. they’re a real band and not a vehicle for excessive ‘showing off.’ So, if you’re hoping to find lots of lengthy prog solos or instrumental passages, you’ll be disappointed because PSA deal in songs, with only one going over ten minutes.
‘Man Made Of Stone’ is a strong opening number, with good guitar work from Ted Leonard, and ‘Window To The World’ nods towards 10CC when they were in their pomp with its white reggae leanings. The story of a man who’s undergone some quite traumatic experiences in war is told in ‘He Once Was’ “..he once was like you and me ..” with its melancholic opening and echoes of early seventies Genesis. They give us their own take on The Beatles ‘She’s Leaving Home’ with ‘Under The Orphan Moon,’ a powerful, emotive story about a pregnant teenage girl leaving home after ‘a bad situation.’ The very proggy ‘Somewhere North Of Nowhere’ is a gem right from the outset, and they conclude a very positive album with ‘Love is Still The Light’ suggesting that despite everything going on all around us, love still shines the way.
If you’ve enjoyed listening to PSA’s three albums to date, it’s inconceivable you won’t enjoy this one as well. It’s tight, well written, well performed and full of songs with real depth, showing PSA are still pushing at the boundaries of musical exploration, and with the Beard currently in a fallow period, it’s good to see these guys keeping up their chops.
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