by Gordon Phillips (@gordonmphillips)
On Christmas Eve of 2017, anti-songwriter Sam Ray (Ricky Eat Acid, Julia Brown) artfully used the surprise release of I Blew on a Dandelion and the Whole World Disappeared to change the name of one of his projects from Teen Suicide to American Pleasure Club. The band returned with its “first” proper full-length record, A Whole Fucking Lifetime of This, on February 16, 2018.
Sam Ray’s projects have always been largely informed by whatever the hell he wants and, beautifully, A Whole Fucking Lifetime of This proves no exception. From the record’s subdued acoustic opener, “Florida (Voicemail)” to its suspended, floating closer “The Sun Way in My Eyes,” Ray clearly pledges no allegiance to any particular genre tag, set of production decisions or songwriting conventions. Crucially, Ray’s production and arrangement decisions aptly meet the needs of each carefully varied composition.
Some songs employ breathless double-tracked whispers and thumb-strummed acoustic guitar while others rely on EQ-swept, helter-skelter drum machines and almost industrially processed vocal effects. The percussion variances alone are captivating—songs like “Sycamore” and “There Was a Time When I Needed It” perch comfortably atop faux-drum loops while “New Years Eve” and “This Is Heaven & Id Die For It” necessitate full-on drum set tracks. “Lets Move to the Desert” and “Seemed Like the Whole World Was Lost” are straight-up R&B songs—somebody get Sam Ray a production credit on the next Drake “mixtape” or “playlist” or whatever he’s calling them now. Tastefully dialed-in synths stretch out on “Sycamore” while distant piano accompanies auto-tuned crooning on “Eating Cherries.” For a 30-minute collection of songs, this thing covers a ton of sonic ground without feeling disjointed or overly like a Bandcamp dump of somebody’s backup hard drive—this is a record.
For all the twisted, smashed-in arrangements, Ray clearly still knows how to back off and write a gorgeous acoustic song about falling in love—he is married now, after all. “You made it hard to have grace/when I first saw your face/bathed in golden light from/some cheap bar bathroom's/teenage sacrifice” he sings on “Before My Telephone Rings,” a sentiment his wife, Kitty Ray, echoes at the end of “Eating Cherries.” Listen for yourself, it’ll mess you up when those 6/8 drums come in.
One component of A Whole Fucking Lifetime of This that simply cannot go unmentioned is the absolute shredding tastefully deployed when needed. The guitar breaks on “New Years Eve” carry the song through its two-minute, fuzzed out duration. Twin leads harmonize in and out of the vocal lines on “There Was a Time When I Needed It.” “Slump down/Yeah he’s down for the count,” Ray sings over heavily-distorted chords on “This Is Heaven & Id Die For It,” possibly the record’s catchiest offering.