Stream: Saint Motel, ‘It’s All Happening’

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Saint Motel (Photo by Catie Laffoon)

After releasing the first two parts of their ambitious “The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack” as EPs in 2019 and 2020, L.A. quartet Saint Motel hit the finish line on June 25, when the whole 15-song album is out.

Purveyors of unabashedly theatrical pop-rock (and now hosts of their own virtual world), the band modeled the release after the three-act narrative structure known “the hero’s journey.” Count the fact that Act 3 hits just as the pandemic lifts its shackles as good timing.

“It’s All Happening” is the new single — we’re not sure if it’s intentional, but the title nods to veteran Los Angeles DJ and scenester Rodney Bingenheimer. “It’s All Happening” was the name of Rodney’s 1960s-era nightlife column in Go magazine (the phrase was later appropriated by Cameron Crowe for his character Penny Lane in “Almost Famous”).

And in a way, it is all happening — including the fact that Saint Motel (A/J Jackson, Aaron Sharp, Dak Lerdamornpong and Greg Erwin — are back with another batch of modern-day showtunes. Included are pop bops, orchestrated ballads, big band-leaning romps and horn-spiked rockers, all calibrated for maximum dopamine transmission. They give the feeling that in Saint Motel’s hero journey, the listener is quite possibly the hero.

||| Stream: “It’s All Happening”

||| Previously: “TOMPS: Pt. 2,” “Preach,” “TOMPS: Pt. 1,” live at the Observatory, live at the Glass House, “Move,” live at Coachella 2015, “My Type,” “Ace in the Hole,” “Benny Goodman,” “Voyeur” (full album), “1997,” “Puzzle Pieces” video, “Puzzle Pieces,” interview from 2009.