Album Review: Bambara's Ominous New Album, "Stray," Transports You to the Next Box Office Thriller
This is the album artwork for Bambara’s new album, “Stray” released via Wharf Cat Records.
By Ashley Gallagher
With the opening song, “Miracle,” the listener can already begin to imagine the opening scene to the next Box Office thriller. However, this is not a movie soundtrack; it is the new album from Bambara.
This is their most evolved album to date. It is well put together with a cinematic feeling within the music and great storytelling behind the lyrics. This album was written differently than their previous.
“Usually we have a couple years between records so it doesn’t have to be this way, but we felt like this had to be done in a certain timeframe,” says lyricist and frontman Reid Bateh. “We just took the amount of hours we would have spent in two years, and jammed them all into a few months. Pretty much every day we sat in my basement and did 8 hour days. Constantly writing for 7 months. Just writing all day and then going to work at bars at night.”
That is not the only thing that differentiates this album from the rest. Bateh, who is a fiction writer outside of the band, wrote the lyrics as “short stories” instead of each song being a chapter, which was how the previous record was. He gathered a collection of photographs from a thrift store and combined his own experiences and the details of the pictures to create the lyrics to the album.
The album is one to listen to all the way through, in order. The creative and detailed storytelling is an experience that is effective when listened to in order. It is well put together, and keeps the listener entertained from start to finish.
Bambara are set to go on an extensive US and Europe tour.
Follow Bambara on social media
Twitter: @BambaraBand
Instagram: @bambaraband
Facebook: @BAMBARA.band
Listen to “Stray” here:
Tour Dates
April 5 - Edinburgh, UK @ Sneaky Pete’s
May 5 - Edinburgh, UK @ Sneaky Pete's
May 6 - Glasgow, UK @ Stereo
May 7 - Newcastle, UK @ The Cluny
May 8 - Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club
May 9 - Dublin, UK @ The Sound House
May 11 - Manchester, UK @ Yes (Pink Room)
May 12 - Bristol, UK @ The Exchange
May 13- Cardiff, UK @ Clwb Ifor Bach
May 15 - Oxford, UK @ The Bullingdon
May 16 - Nottingham, UK @ Bodega Social Club
May 18 - Cambridge, UK @ Portland Arms
May 19 - Birmingham, UK @ Hare and Hounds
May 20 - London, UK @ The Dome
May 21 - Leffinge, Belgium @ De Zwerver
May 23- Amsterdam, Netherlands @ London Calling Festival
May 25 - Cologne, Germany @ Bumann & Sohn
May 26 - Hamburg, Germany @ Molotow Musikclub
May 27 - Berlin, Germany @ Urban Spree
May 28 - Munich, Germany @ Sunny Red
May 29 - Mainz, Germany @ Kulturclub Schon Schön
May 30 - Antwerp, Belgium @ Trix Bar
June 1 - Luxembourg, Luxembourg @ Rotondes
June 3 - Paris, France @ L'Espace B