The more that the members of Strange Ranger dress like the cast of Trainspotting, the more its music sounds like it would have appeared on the 1996 movie's soundtrack. Since relocating from Portland, Ore., to New York City and Philly surrounding the release of 2019's Remembering the Rockets, the drab guitar rockers (formerly known as Sioux Falls) have fallen in love with glitchy digital production and unpredictable pop songwriting.
"Rain So Hard" was written while members Isaac Eiger and Fiona Woodman were in the midst of breaking up. The song ultimately retains the energy of Strange Ranger's signature emo-y rock, but whispers of rave culture and — more unexpectedly — glam beam through layers of manipulated voices and distorted guitar noodling. "How do I get out of this movie now?" Woodman serenely intones over floaty synth pads and filtered drums in the pearly cut's pre-chorus. Strange Ranger might be intertwined with the Dimes Square electronic scene (think The Dare, Blaketheman1000), but its newer output increasingly harkens the muddy fields of some long-forgotten '90s U.K. festival.
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