North Carolina poet and songwriter Anne Malin brings an extended ensemble to her fifth full-length, moving away from the ghostly tremors of 2020's Waiting Song towards a surer, more communal sound. There's nothing spectral about "North Carolina," for instance. The tune pays tribute to Ringwalt's home state, trance-like percussion, pedal steel and piano flourishing around her warm, twining melodies, while "River" undulates with the warmth of Lily Honigberg's violin. Still, "Lilac Bloom" is as delicate as the blossoms it celebrates, and wavery washes of surf guitar arise around its slow lament. And edging back into goth, "The Visionary" quotes a poem by Emily Brontë, Ringwalt's voice echoing the novelist's 19th century, death-haunted romanticism. Strange Power! builds a narrow bridge between this world and the next. 

- Jennifer Kelly, Dusted