Introspection and expressions of loneliness.  Galway’s Rory Ryan merges Lennon, Carole King et al with the electronics of the 90s on his debut album

Release Date:  22nd March 2023

Label: Self Release

Formats: Digital

Galway-based songwriter, performer and producer Rory Ryan has been making quite a splash on platforms such as YouTube and Spotify.  He released his debut EP – the literally entitled EP1 – back in 2021, and that, along with his subsequent singles, For You and Keeping My Mind Quiet, have kept the pot simmering in anticipation of this, his debut full-length album.

Rory Ryan is a man with a great deal to offer.  His life as a musician began to take shape when he was just 6 (or 7) years old and he started to take piano lessons – there was always a piano hanging around in the Ryan household.  As Rory entered his teens, he picked up a guitar and, having earned his proficiency stripes on that particular instrument, he moved on to synths.  He’s even a drummer, too.  Coming from Galway, his music naturally evokes his pastoral surroundings, but not always in the way you might expect.  He includes songwriters like Paul McCartney, Carole King and Labi Siffre on his list of formative influences, along with the work of more electronically-driven bands like Beach House, The Flaming Lips and Cigarettes After Sex and the combination of these influences with the mysticism of his locality makes for a heady brew indeed.

And, without doubt, the serenity of Galway and Connemara, the introspection and observation of those 70s songwriters and the vibrant sparkle of Rory’s more recent influences are all there to be admired and enjoyed on When You’re Alone How Does it Feel?  In fact, I’d push things a little further by suggesting that, alongside Paul McCartney, the influence of John Lennon is an almost overwhelming presence throughout the album.

Recorded in Rory’s own small studio in Galway during late 2022 and early 2023, When You’re Alone How Does it Feel? was mixed by Sean Cook (Weyes Blood, Matt Maltese, Hozier, St Vincent) in Los Angeles and mastered by Phillip Shaw Bova (Andy Shauf, Angel Olsen, Devendra Banhart, Father John Misty) in Ottawa.  Rory handled the production duties himself and the result is an album with lots of space to breathe; Rory’s voice – which reminds me a little of The Monkees’ Davy Jones… – is (usually) way upfront, his lyrics (and you’ll want to hear these…) are loud and clear and the instrumentation – usually synths, guitar, drums and bass – is discrete and well-balanced, yet vibrant and dominant whenever it needs to be.

As the album’s title clearly indicates, the central theme of Rory’s songs on the album is loneliness, a subject which, despite being such a prevalent and widespread issue in modern society, remains something of a social taboo, as Rory explains: “It’s a funny one, really.  It’s this massive, massive problem but it kind of gets shrugged off a lot of the time.  There’s a cost-of-living crisis that I think has a massive role to play.  You’re far less likely to go and do something with your mates if you’re working these long hours just so you can afford a place to live and eat.  I think work is something that’s consuming us more and more.  There’s this whole hustle mindset where we’re glorifying working ourselves to an early grave for people that would replace us as soon as we’re gone.  It’s a bit ridiculous really.  The way we interact with social media is a big factor as well.  The way the world is at the moment is slowly eroding away these connections that used to be second nature to us.”

Rory’s pastoral surroundings are brought vividly to life in Long Gone, the short, evocative, haunting instrumental piece that gets the album underway.  Rory’s synths swirl around a mellow piano figure and, as a piece intended to place the listener in the right mood for what’s to come, it works a treat.  Intimate and slightly disorienting, Together is a ballad with a spacey psychedelic edge.  Rory’s reassuring vocals are driven along by a solid, interesting bass/drum rhythm, whilst synths glide and swoop in a song that manages to be both comforting and otherworldly at the same time.

It’s John Lennon, at around the time of his Mind Games album, that comes to mind with the dreamy, Beatle-ish, In The Past, one of the album’s real highlights.  Rory’s signature blend of synths over a solid rhythm foundation is enhanced by touches of Harrison-like slide guitar and drum fills that even Ringo would be proud of.  For the echo-y, spacy, In the Future – the album’s lead single – Rory pops questions like: “Do you ever let your guard down?” “Does your brain keep replaying things that have passed?” and “Have you learned to live with yourself yet?” as his slide guitar brings a touch of heaviness to an otherwise contemplative and dreamy song.

It may seem that we have been dwelling in the halcyon days of the late 60s and early 70s so far, but the fast, punchy, If I Ever Feel Like Coming Back take a surge forward to the technological Valhalla of the 1990s.  But it does so without losing the otherworldly feel of the album and the wonderful twangy guitar sits in absolute comfort amongst the song’s swirling electronica.  Meanwhile, the grand, widescreen backing to the excellent I Know That it’s Over contrasts vividly with Rory’s fractured, injured vocal delivery.  It’s a vocal performance that reminds me of Gram Parsons at his most intimate and vulnerable, and the overall effect is a song that manages to merge The Flying Burrito Brothers with OMD.

The synths are sparse but highly effective on the sharp, bright, slightly punky How I’ve Come Undone, before the pace is notched back and the cinema screen illuminated for It’s Not Always Bad, the second of the album’s two short instrumental pieces.  This time around, the synth sound is truly orchestral as the tune evokes the closing credits to a happy-ending romantic movie epic.

The drums are big, the bass is solid, the guitars soar and Rory channels Lennon once again on Keeping My Mind Quiet, another of the album’s big Beatle-flavoured ballads, before things turn decidedly rocky for Contently Miserable, the latest single to be taken from the album.  The swooping bassline is delicious and the synths and guitars integrate wonderfully, whilst Rory delivers a vocal that alternates between assured arrogance and wide-open vulnerability.

As I’ve remarked on numerous occasions, it’s always a good idea, when sequencing an album, to save the best until last, and Rory does that here to great effect.  The excellent Two Sides of the Same Coin is unlike any other song on the album, yet seems to bring everything together into a cohesive parcel.  It’s a piano ballad and another song inhabited by the spirit of John Lennon and, this time, he’s in an Imagine mood.  Rory’s electric piano is delightful and his vocal is the best on the album.  The lyrics are intriguing and the song’s sudden ending – “I think we just met at the wrong time,” is as pleasantly surprising as it is inspired.

When You’re Alone How Does it Feel? Is a thoroughly enjoyable album and I’ll leave the final word to Rory Ryan, as he explains how it feels to have got all these thoughts and emotions out into the open: “It’s definitely been therapeutic for me.  I try not to think too much when I’m writing lyrics.  That way I find whatever I write comes from an honest place.  For the first several years of writing, almost all of my lyrics were disingenuous, probably because I didn’t want to reveal too much about how I was feeling.  I was very uncomfortable with putting myself out there in that way.  But then, as I got older, I realized that when I wrote honestly, I actually liked the songs I wrote and wanted to listen to them.  To have an album that’s really honest is something I’m really proud of in that sense.  I’ve sat with these songs for a long time and I still love them, but it is a bit uncomfortable putting something like this out as well… but I’d rather feel uncomfortable sharing something I really love, than putting out songs that have no personal substance for me.”

Watch the official video to Contently Miserable – the latest single to be taken from the album – here:

Rory Ryan online: Instagram / YouTube / Bandcamp / Spotify

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