In a land laden with psych rock and reverb (or just Somerville), there stands Sandy Gray with a prism of light encasing him as he holds out his latest album, Blunderland, to place into your hands. Gray’s quest? To take you galloping through his psychedelic fantasy world.

Gray starts this journey in opening track “Terra Incognita.” The vocals cut through droned out bass and distorted guitar riffs, which are softened by the gentle drumbeat. Once you’ve heard this track, you think you’ll be able to predict the sound of the album; psych rock to the core. Alas! It takes an unexpected twist immediately in “Sleeping Beauty of the South,” a track seeming to showcase a conversation with a man, young girl, and woman as various instruments play subtly in the background, as if tuning before a performance.

As Blunderland continues, it’s constantly reinforced that this is not just your generic psych rock album. There are poppy undertones in tracks like “Walking in Circles” and “Blood Moon Rising,” expressed through catchy hooks and endearing lyrics that challenge the typical infinite droning of the genre. A harmonica makes an appearance in “Check the Circuit.” And if “Gravitate to Me, Spotless Mind” was stripped to its bare bones without the layers of sound, the song could easily make its way onto an indie pop album as the melancholy staple. “Peter’s Gun” is entirely instrumental, while other tracks are exactly what you wouldn’t expect while this far into the album—a dreamy psych tune!

In other words, this album isn’t made within the confines of a psych rock cookie cutter. It’s an evolving, ever-changing piece of art that twists, turns, blossoms, and wanes. And perhaps this is exactly how Gray intended for it to be, or maybe it’s just part of the transformative journey that is Blunderland.