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Finally the comparisons can be put to rest.  No longer does Matthew Ryan have to be compared to Springsteen and Mellencamp.  On this, the follow-up to his last solo record Regret Over the Wires and his Strays Don’t Sleep project with Neilson Hubbard we find Ryan continuing in his pursuit of the folk-tronica sound, losing the big guitar based rock of his earlier releases. 

What you do hear is more of a sound built on keyboards, loops, and guitars that are run through all kinds of effects.  As a fan of his earlier releases, I was wondering if this album would work at all for me.  Then the voice kicks in.  It is the same raspy sound that has kept me listening to Ryan.  Then I start listening to the lyrics and I am sold.

As you listen you find out that these songs were created out of two tragic events that occurred in Ryan’s life:  the death of a close friend and his brother being imprisoned.   The track “Gone for Good” finds him wrestling with the sadness over a lost friend.  While the song “Everybody Always Leaves” finds him dealing with abandonment. 

It is a disc that is full of extreme depth and beauty. These songs show that there is a hope, though fragile, that emerges from these feelings of loss and sadness.  Though it shines through unsteadily, you sense that Ryan is continuing to keep focused on the light in front of him as he journeys through this time in his life.

In a time when most pop records fail to say much of anything, let alone struggle with the hard stuff of life, this is a record that finds Ryan digging, searching, and laying it all out there in hopes of finding some peace. 

By Gar Saeger  submitted 6/17/07