![]() Maybe that’s why it meanders a bit, in that state everything seems like a better story and there’s a tendency to become a bit maudlin to ponder mistakes and religion and fate. Its not an all night bender, mind you, its the kind of record that finds the sweet harmony between the joy of day drinking in good company and that warm ball of contended sadness that forms about four or five drinks in. Some records are, quite frankly, whiskey records and this is one of them. Its the kind of record that’s comfortable with its collar braced against the wind. Golden Sings That Have Been Sung is an autumnal record for sure. It’s taken me a little while to let this one settle because its been too damn hot to even let it into my consciousness. Walker allows his indulgences, as did plenty of those tumbling out of the ’60s and into a more progressive ’70s, but his troubadour’s soul saves him from an experimenter’s curiosity. But when he’s on, he’s on and that’s more often than not. Other times he’s letting himself stretch a bit longer than the song calls for, allowing some live instincts to drape onto the studio for a track that feels like the session was likely fun that day, with precision players feeling their way to a resolution, but at the expense of the listener’s attention (see: “Sullen Mind”). Occasionally this works and Walker winds up untethered and spinning into a kind of poetic grace. In that regard, he pushes the track lengths here past the scope of typical pop. One would think maybe he was pushing for Harper’s Stormcock too, with talks of the suited record he originally envisioned. He pines for the expansive reach of Gene Clark’s No Other. So where do you go from there? Walker follows his Tim Buckley muse down the line and reaches for the more sprawling and ambling shores of Blue Afternoon. ![]() ![]() Walker’s previous album Primrose Green nailed the stylistic marks of the wave that crested out of the ’60’s folk boom and into the jazz inflections and more experimental lengths that would fleck landmarks like Astral Weeks, Goodbye and Hello or Roy Harper’s Flat, Baroque and Berserk. + Stay home if you're sick or have been in contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19.Emerging from the accolades of a beloved album is no easy feat. + Please exhibit mutual respect and kindness for your neighbors. + Per Governor Scott’s ‘Vermont Forward’ guidance, masks are encouraged, but not required. + We will be following all State of Vermont Health guidelines and mandates. RYLEY WALKER TWITTER FULLTo put it simply: Course In Fable is Walker’s best record yet, full of active imagination and endless possibilities. Even though he emerged at first in folk- rock troubadour mode, it makes sense that he’s arrived at this point each LP has grown more intricate and assured, his influences distilling into something original and unusual. Walker spent his formative years in Chicago, absorbing those heady sounds and finding ways to make them his own. The masterful Course In Fable, the songwriter’s fifth solo effort, draws from the deep well of that city’s fertile 1990s scene, when bands like Tortoise, The Sea and Cake and Gastr del Sol were reshaping the underground, mixing and matching indie rock, jazz, prog and beyond. But his latest LP is a Chicago record in spirit. Ryley Walker currently resides in New York City. And don't get mad if they get stuck in your head and turn your light on too. What can I say about these guys that won't sound like more swirling arpeggios of sophistry, except play their sound. ![]() Born out of a songwriting and production partnership between Matt Dublin and Ezra Oklan, Matthew Mercury aims to celebrate stories threaded into catchy choruses with an overall pop delivery that no healthy boy or girl can resist. ![]() Matthew Mercury pays homage to the feeling of New York narratives a la Lou Reed, punctuated by Television-like guitar signatures, while making a detour out to the earnest romance of Springsteen's darkened trestles, all the while genuflecting to the artistry of Brill Building-esque hooks. A story about keeping the light on and having a vision. ![]()
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