I only discovered Bill Ryder Jones’ music in 2018 with the release of ‘Yawn’. So taken was I with that record and a live show in Hackney earlier this year that I felt compelled to go through the back catalogue. Whilst each album is different they are all earnest, subtle and beautiful. His songs are often sad and in other hands this might come across as morose. Bill does not suffer this fate as his lyrics are at times so intimate that the listener could be forgiven for believing that they are about them. Here are five essentials to coincide with the release of his latest disc ‘Yawny Yawn’:
Enlace - ‘If…’ remains the true anomaly in BRJs catalogue. Where the other records contain songs in the verse-chorus tradition, this album has a series of orchestral pieces inspired as a hypothetical soundtrack to Italo Calvino’s novel ‘If On A Winter’s Night A Traveller’. Built around a chilling piano motif ‘Enlace’ was a standout. The piece grows hypnotically courtesy of swirling strings before being brought to an abrupt end as the track waltzes out on crunching electric guitar. Also check out ‘Some Absolute End (The End)’ a fitting way to end (end) any record.
Wild Swans - Second album ‘A Bad Wind Blows in my Heart’ is one of the best things I have heard in the last ten years. It is melodic, awkward, tragic, subtle, charming and heart warming all in the space of eleven understated tracks. ‘Wild Swans’ has an anthemic quality that would have made it a greatest hit for a Coldplay-esque stadium band. The way it is presented here provides much greater reward for the repeat listener. Deft drumming and chiming guitar accompany a weary vocal which suggests a whiff of denial - “Don’t tell me that it's over, It’s not over til I say it's over”.
Seabirds - What was it I said about the second album? Oh yes, that’s right - ‘one of the best of the last ten years’ - maybe the same should be said of the slightly more guitar based ‘West Kirby County Primary’. As with the previous record there are moments here that will move the coldest of hearts. He has an ability to combine lyric and vocal so that you feel as if you are in the room with him. ‘Seabirds’ is a romantic example “I don’t care what you are running from, I would follow you”. Also see ‘Put it down before you break it’.
No one’s trying to kill you - Not lost on fourth album ‘Yawn’ are the touchstones that made the previous two so enjoyable. This record has an added alternative 90s feel that evokes bands such as Pavement and maybe, more tenuously, Teenage Fanclub. The sound is sparser and, at times harsher, but no less affecting. Embellished by several guest vocalists including Soph Nathan this track washes over with a serenity to calm the most anxious of souls.
Don’t Be Scared I Love You - This was the first cut taken from ‘Yawny Yawn’ a fascinating and stunning re-imagining of the songs from ‘Yawn’. The atmospheric ’scrapes’ and ‘swirls’ that accompany piano and vocal provide a vast mournful landscape for the song to breathe in. Of the lyrics Bill has said that it was written to assure someone that he loved them despite their doubting the fact.
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