B-Side Guys

“Hindsight is 2023” declares Spirit Ritual’s “Third Nature,” immediately establishing its approach to reality-bending wordplay. The Nashville quartet’s third exploration of manipulated idioms creates something both familiar and strange through its careful destabilization of common phrases.

Recorded at Loud and Clear Studios in Paducah, Kentucky, the track demonstrates the band’s ability to match sonic experimentation with linguistic play. Jef Bjarnson’s vocals navigate lines like “The soul is the window to the eye” with emotional conviction that transforms clever wordplay into genuine expression.

The arrangement creates perfect environment for these twisted truisms to flourish. Ian McInroe’s keyboards, Evan Bundy’s bass, and Christian Scott Northover’s drums work together to create a dreamy landscape where “working that 5-9” and finding “the tunnel’s at the end of the light” feel like natural observations.

Each verse introduces new manipulations of familiar phrases – “take it with a grain of sugar,” “go the extra kilometer” – while the music maintains steady momentum. This balance between playful linguistics and serious musicianship prevents the track from becoming mere exercise in cleverness.

The chorus’s declaration that “there’s a time and place for nothing” gains power through its connection to the album’s title observation that “there’s a last time for everything.” These philosophical touches ground the wordplay in genuine contemplation, supported by production that emphasizes both playfulness and depth.

Particularly effective is the way the arrangement handles shifts between verses packed with twisted idioms and more straightforward emotional declarations. The band demonstrates remarkable skill in maintaining cohesion while moving between linguistic gymnastics and direct expression.

The production allows space for both the intricate wordplay and the emotional delivery to land effectively. When Bjarnson sings about being “out in the lemonlight,” the arrangement creates perfect atmospheric support for this newly coined illumination.

As part of Spirit Ritual’s debut album “A Last Time for Everything,” the track suggests a band equally committed to sonic and linguistic exploration. Their ability to transform common phrases into fresh observations while maintaining musical focus demonstrates promising artistic maturity.

“Third Nature” succeeds in creating something that works both as clever wordplay and genuine expression. By bringing together psychedelic sound and manipulated language, Spirit Ritual proves that sometimes the best way to find new meaning is through twisting the familiar until it becomes strange again.