| Last Rays of a Dying Sun | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | Rain Parade |
| Cover: | Rain Parade - Last Rays of a Dying Sun.png |
| Length: | 39:34 |
| Label: |
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| Producer: | Jim Hill |
| Chronology: | Rain Parade studio album |
| Prev Title: | Crashing Dream |
| Prev Year: | 1985 |
Last Rays of a Dying Sun is the third studio album by American band Rain Parade, released through Flatiron Recordings and Label 51 on August 4, 2023. It is their first studio album since their reformation in 2012, and their first in 38 years, following Crashing Dream (1985).[1] It includes guest appearances by Debbi Peterson and Vicki Peterson of the Bangles, and the Moore Brothers.
Last Rays of a Dying Sun received a score of 69 out of 100 on review aggregator Metacritic based on four critics' reviews, indicating "generally favorable" reception. Mojo felt that "the age is clear in the voices of Matt Piucci and Steven Roback, but so is the honesty inside songs that mine lost brothers, opportunities, and time", while Uncut stated that "the best tracks gently slip their moorings, as with the sour fuzzed guitar and damaged lyrics of 'Got the Fear', and hazy warp and alchemical concerns of the insinuatingly addictive 'Green'". Classic Rock remarked that its "gilded vocal harmonies and gently chiming guitars are uppermost as the band move through subtle variants of form and texture".
Mark Deming of AllMusic wrote that Last Rays of a Dying Sun "sounds just like a Rain Parade album – the approach is a bit more aggressive and the tunes sound a bit more down to earth, and yet this is an absolutely credible 21st Century version of the their trademark approach", concluding that it "begins a new chapter in their story with impressive strength and vision, and finds the Paisley Underground heroes still as gifted and capable as one could hope". Kieron Tyler of The Arts Desk found it to be an album "about continuity. It does not matter how this point has been reached, or even how disjointed the path has been as it's manifestly a Rain Parade album, one thankfully lacking the thinness of its 1985 predecessor Crashing Dream".