Shannon and the Clams, “The Moon is in the Wrong Place.”

Oakland garage rock quartet Shannon and the Clams delivers profound reflections about life’s impermanence on its new album. Made in Nashville with Dan Auerbach, The Moon Is In The Wrong Place captures the raw emotion and creative energy that emerged from the band’s experience of grief and healing. Each track is a testament to the emotional journey.

Frontwoman Shannon Shaw’s world turned inside out when her fiancé, Joe Haener, a drummer and fixture in the Bay Area music scene, died in a car crash just weeks before their wedding. His death was a devastating loss, as he was close with all the band members.

The album opens with a gut-wrenching punch in “The Vow,” which starts with tender singing and nostalgic horn melodies before delving into themes of possibility and promise, only to be met with the groundlessness of catastrophe. It’s an intensely emotive journey that sets the tone for the rest of the album.

Grief is first felt and then it’s heard: in a cry, a piercing scream, a gasp or in a sharp exhale. You can hear pain in seemingly every single note that Shaw sings.

The band then confronts the complexity of grief head-on, moving through songs dealing with the stages of grief: from disbelief of an incomprehensible loss to the acceptance of life’s inevitable challenges.

From the rousing mantra of “Life Is Fair” to the introspective questioning of “Real or Magic?” each song offers a contained space for feeling sorrow and also summoning up resilience.  The album culminates with “Life Is Unfair,” a powerful reminder of the bittersweet nature of existence.

Shannon and the Clams transform loss into something new and personal that’s also a compelling listen. The band experimented with new instruments and approaches, including a Moog synth and an Omnichord, which expanded its sonic palette for the better.

Psych-rock tracks like “The Hourglass” and “Dali’s Clock” showcase the band’s ability to create unsettling and disorienting soundscapes. Both songs have frenetic rhythms and off-kilter organ melodies that lurch and sink into the darkness. The latter in particular captures the feeling of a world turned upside down.

Yet, amid the chaos, there’s a sense of cohesion with the steady drumming, psychedelic guitar lines and searing vocals tying everything together.

Standout songs like “So Lucky” and “Bean Fields” find moments of gratitude and celebration in the pain, while “Golden Brown” and “In The Grass” offer introspection and reflection. The latter is a bright spot on the album. It’s jovial, with a celebratory chorus and a rousing communal singalong led by guitarist Cody Blanchard. The band members harmonize well, creating a sense of union.

Blanchard also sings lead on Northern-soul-style lament “What You’re Missing” and “Golden Brown,” which conveys the stunned sensation of a summer day appearing to be the same as it’s always been except for the realization that you’ve changed.

Doo-wop tune “Real or Magic?” is its polar opposite in sound. Here, Shannon Shaw wonders aloud in the chorus whether her time with her fiancé was real or imagined. Written about a vision where Haener appeared to Shaw, the song has a dreamy quality and the softest of echos. Scratchy vocals pierce the dream and bring listeners back down to reality.

Recurring themes of dreams and heavenly bodies weave through the album. There’s no better example of the significant influence of the cosmos than on the title track, which traverses the vastest spectrum of sounds and emotions. It oscillates between moments of rage, lament and disbelief, each emotion rising and falling in turn.

Shannon and the Clams transmute heartbreak into music that’s both cathartic and captivating.

It’s here that Shaw shares the ominous statement her fiancé said to her: “Something you told me/ In the last week of your life/ The moon is in the wrong place.”

She barely utters these lyrics before the drumming grows louder and louder until it sounds like fists pounding a wall. The result is powerful and devastating.