Gamma Rays by Temples | Song Review
The English psych band returns with a new single and an upcoming new album.
Temples have not dropped any new music in a while. They dropped a remix in 2021, a single in 2020 and their last album, Hot Motion, was in 2019. In the time between now and then, they’ve posted a series of behind-the-scenes videos and pictures on Instagram showing them working on new music. Now, in 2023, the English psych band has returned with a single called “Gamma Rays” which looks to be the first one for an upcoming album.
“Gamma Rays” is layered in its instrumentation and has an earworm of a hook. The lead melody sounds like a combination of a synth and a guitar and more sounds are added as the song progresses. The drumming keeps the track at a good upbeat pace with shakers and other accents being added to it as well. However, at its base level, it seems a little underwhelming to me. James Bagshaw’s vocals are still in his usual semi nasally high register which gives the song a distinct feel in that department as expected. With all that being said, for this to be their return single after such a long time it wasn’t as big as I was hoping for. In terms of an overall sound, it leans towards psych pop instead of rock. It does sound like an attempt to combine both psych rock and psych pop since their psych pop album Volcano essentially spilt their listeners down the middle and their most recent album Hot Motion was back on the rock sound of their debut project. We’ll have to see where they go with their new album EXOTICO which drops April 14th.
