The Rain Parade - Emergency Third Rail Power Trip (Album Review)

 

The Rain Parade - Emergency Third Rail Power Trip

(1983)


My copy: 2019 limited reissue on red and yellow sunburst vinyl by Real Gone Music.


The Rain Parade are one of the most recognized groups to come up during the Paisley Underground movement in LA during the early 80s. Emergency Third Rail Power Trip, their debut LP, saw a combination of dry rock and roll guitar licks slotted into a series of ethereal psychedelic backing tracks. 

Taking from the major pop bands of the 60s, “Talking In My Sleep” is calculated yet relaxed. There are obvious callbacks to bands like Love or The Millennium, but filtered through a stoned, rock attitude. “This Can’t Be Today” puts a bigger spotlight on the keys, which help emphasize the rather soft vocal harmonies. While some of the execution is dry, nearly every song comes together for a tight, poppy chorus. 

There are faint touches of garage and southern rock on “I Look Around,” which emanates a vague punk vibe in the marching rhythm, albeit stretched out via funhouse mirrors. “1 HR ½ Ago”  is one of the more impressive tracks with sunny organs that overflow into spaced-out breakdowns that wash over the listener with curtains of reverb. “Carolyn’s Song” is the ballad of the album, mixing violin with a nuanced sense of melody and patience. The Rain Parade blends interesting sounds here, but at times it falls short of truly capturing one’s attention. Fortunately, “What She's Done To Your Mind” is the catchiest song on the record, with the tightest vocal harmonies and a jangled guitar lead that dances around the choruses. 

“Look At Merri” is the most interesting song compositionally, with a powerful bass groove that’s just dissonant enough to keep things on edge; the track breaks into waltz sections before everything is resolved in a final payoff of guitar solos and unshackled bass jamming. “Saturday’s Asylum” has the vocals harmonize with the key melodies before crashing into a rapid polka rhythm that quickly goes off rails into a crescendo of notes. “Kaleidoscope” is a somber, easy closer that doesn’t try anything too interesting. 

There are some really fantastic genre bending tracks on this record, but there are also dull moments where the songs fall victim to sleepy repetition. It’s unique to see a sharper take on the languid psych-pop of the 60s, but sometimes the sounds reduce into a pretentious soup of “high-brow” intentions. Emergency Third Rail Power Trip is a great record by all means, but not quite a total game changer. 

This record is semi-rare. My copy is expensive to acquire now despite finding it in a record shop for cheap a few years ago. Other copies will run you about 40 dollars as of writing.


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