Formed in 2018 and releasing their self-titled debut in July of 2019, supergroup Pattern-Seeking Animals have now produced five albums in less than six years. Their latest, Friend Of All Creatures, sees the quartet of Ted Leonard, Dave Meros, Jimmy Keegan, and band mastermind John Boegehold return with seven songs on their shortest album yet, though at about fifty-two minutes, it still packs a punch.
John initially set out to produce about one album a year, and while it’ll be almost a year and four months since their previous effort, 2023’s Spooky Action At A Distance, this hasn’t been their longest gap between albums—that would belong to the release gap between their second and third albums, Prehensile Tales and Only Passing Through, released in 2020 and 2022 respectively.
In progressive rock fashion, the album opens with its two longest tracks, totaling nearly twenty-two minutes! Opener “Future Perfect World” features some head-bobbing keyboard motifs and riffs before heading into the first verse. The first few minutes recall some Spock’s Beard-like sounds, and while this band may forever draw comparisons to them, they continue to carve out their own musical sound, driven by keyboards and strong rhythmic foundations with tight odd-meter grooves courtesy of Jimmy and Dave on drums and bass, respectively. Guitarist/vocalist Ted Leonard is no slouch either, as his soaring vocals and guitar solos continue to impress with each new album. Halfway through the opening track, Ted takes a guitar solo that leads into a more down-tempo section before launching back into another similar verse from earlier on, which feels VERY classic Spock’s Beard. A very strong opener, and their longest opener since their debut, but not the longest song on this album.
“Another Holy Grail” is the requisite album epic, and at over twelve minutes long, it is their third-longest track so far (narrowly beating “He Once Was” from their previous album). It opens with vocals and keys, setting the tone for this piece before launching into full-band bombast and a steady groove in seven (a meter the band is very fond of on this and many of their albums). A few minutes in, the song shifts into faster, driving rhythms with some lead melodic lines traded between keys and guitar. The sudden shifts in dynamics and tempo continue with a slower vocal section in the middle of the song, culminating in some lead bass guitar from Dave and a guitar solo from Ted. As the piece enters its final third, keys and vocals lead us into the ending with one more verse before the full band enters to drive the song home with a mash-up of the first and final verses. The final minutes have the band building to an explosion of syncopated, simultaneous hits at the close, which feels like a train hitting its brakes as the piece ends almost abruptly—but in a satisfying way.
After the exciting epic comes the slower, ballad-like piece “Down The Darkest Road”, which fills a similar role to previous post-epic follow-up tracks “Rock Paper Scissors” and “Underneath The Orphan Moon” from their previous two albums. Featuring some haunting vocals, ethereal keyboards, and minimal percussion, this track is heavy on atmosphere and mood, providing a great palette cleanser after the previous epic-length rocker.
“In My Dying Days” opens the second half of the album with a mid-tempo rocker featuring some violin, which gives this piece a distinct Kansas-like flavor in its back half. During the bridge, we are treated to another delightful guitar solo before moving into the final pre-chorus/chorus—now with violin! This could have easily been an album-opener, and being the lead single for the album proves that as well. It almost ends as quickly as it begins, but we then move on to “The Seventh Sleeper”, which has quite a unique opening of arpeggiated keys with light cymbal work. At a little over eight minutes long, this slow-build intro leads into verses with echoed lyrics. Brief piano and guitar solos lead into the quite proggy middle section in 11/8, which remains the meter through to the end, except for a repeated lyric: “Seems they danced to the rhythm of life / Music of the spheres / Soon they disappeared into the night”, which feels quite appropriate for the meter to shift into the more common 12/8, as a dance to “the rhythm of life.”
“Days We’ll Remember” sees the band revisit yet another former Spock’s Beard bonus track (the third in the P-SA catalog following “No One Ever Died And Made Me King” and “Bulletproof”). Despite originally being released as a Spock’s Beard tune, this version is reframed in the P-SA sound, with some tweaks to the arrangements and performances to help differentiate it from its Noise Floor relative, particularly in the middle and at the end. The new sounds in this version give it a more early-’80s Genesis feel compared to the Spock’s Beard version, which felt more modern and heavier in its slow yet deliberate 6/8 meter. If you’re already familiar with its 2018 counterpart, it’ll be fun to A/B the two and discover the differences.
Closing out the album is the stand-out “Words Of Love Evermore”, beginning ominously with bass and keyboards for half a minute. Jimmy then enters with some heavy-hitting drums before launching into the song’s main riff and motifs on electric guitar. This intro feels like it couldn’t have been anything but the album-closer, with how it builds and builds before heading into a very proggy instrumental break in 5/8, featuring some classic-Genesis-sounding lead synth. The instrumental break doesn’t overstay its welcome, though, and the song goes back into the earlier main groove for one more verse. The song then spends its final few minutes with an extended outro featuring repeated lyrics that are the song’s title, a tasty guitar solo from Ted, and a fade-out into infinity with those repeated lyrics—a message of hope that feels welcome and needed in these times. This is the kind of live-show set-closer that gets the audience waving their arms in time as the band rocks out. As an album-closer, it fits right in line with previous closers like “Here With You With Me” and “Love Is Still The Light”, which also feature fade-outs—something that isn’t too common for this band and now seemingly reserved for album closers.
The album’s slightly shorter-than-usual runtime might leave fans wanting more, but it doesn’t feel like the songs presented here would have benefitted from being longer. Each piece seems to last just as long as it needs to, perhaps leaving us wanting more but not feeling dissatisfied. Pattern-Seeking Animals continues to evolve with each new release, and while being this prolific might leave some fans feeling burned out (with five albums in less than six years), Friend Of All Creatures offers some new sounds within a familiar framework from the quartet that seems to have firmly planted themselves as a frontrunner of the genre in the 2020s.
Rating: 9/10
Friend Of All Creatures releases February 14th, through GEP (Giant Electric Pea), on CD and vinyl. Get your copy of the album HERE
Tracklisting:
1. Future Perfect World
2. Another Holy Grail
3. Down the Darkest Road
4. In My Dying Days
5. The Seventh Sleeper
6. Days We’ll Remember
7. Words of Love Evermore
PATTERN-SEEKING ANIMALS online:
https://PSAnimals1.com
https://Facebook.com/psanimals1
https://x.com/psanimals1
https://www.instagram.com/psanimals1/
https://youtube.com/@psanimals1
