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17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Inspiring, challenging, catchy rock music for smart grown-ups: , April 1, 2008
It was the summer we were living in Paris. The early evening was sunny and warm, and I had a business dinner a mile down the Seine, so I walked. For company, I had my iPod. I plugged in my professional-grade headphones, dialed up Matthew Ryan's most recent CD, Regret Over the Wires, and started walking.
It wasn't long before I was weeping for joy. All the planets were aligned. I was off to meet a prestigious client at a chic restaurant, and then I'd go home --- in Paris! --- to my wife and child. Work, money, love. All present. And, linking them, was beauty: Matthew Ryan's music, which was wise about the struggle for happiness and wiser still about tunes and lyrics you just can't shake.
And you probably have never heard of Matthew Ryan.
This is a good time to discover him --- Matthew Ryan Vs. The Silver State may be his best effort yet. The lyrics range from the merely gorgeous ("And in pulling off her scarf/ I let go/ It floated like a wounded bird/ Her mouth the shape of Spanish words") to ordinary self-loathing ("I'm living on Jupiter/ I couldn't feel stupider"). And the music can be so anthemic and ebullient that, when the Irish-sounding violin kicks in, our little girl dances a gig.
Think: Leonard Cohen meets The Clash, Bruce Springsteen meets Nick Drake.
I could bang on at length about Matthew Ryan as a life-enhancer whose hand-carved music will do wonders for your disposition, but you'll do better to sample his work and read my conversation with him. He's a man with ideas, and determination, and a real set of values, and that comes out in his talk as surely as it does in his music.
Prepare to be challenged. And rewarded. And, if you're lucky, moved to tears with the pleasure of discovering a great talent.
JK: You're 36, but you've had your share of blows. Before your last CD, From A Late Night High Rise, your brother was sentenced to 30 years in jail. I think of that Sly Stone verse: "One child grows up to be/ Somebody that just loves to learn/ Another child grows up to be/ Somebody you'd just love to burn." Is that the story here?
MR: A strange invisible hand led to different attractions. My brother's trouble started when he was 12. I loved songs and fumbled with chords. I couldn't learn to play other's songs. So I started writing my own.
JK: Around the same time as your brother went inside, you lost a close friend to cancer.
MR: She was great, so smart, so funny, and she died so young. She was a real emotional champion for me, so her loss was huge to me. And her family, of course.
JK: Two losses. And now this CD. "Brighter" is too simple --- your singing still suggests a whispered confessional and your words still invite thought. Let's start with the title: Matthew Ryan Vs The Silver State. Of course you mean Nevada.
MR: Yes.
JK: And, I suspect, more.
MR: I'm like a collector of weather. I only care about how a song or idea makes me feel. "Vs. The Silver State" felt like it meant something to me before I intellectualized it.
JK: Take me through the steps.
MR: Las Vegas is in Nevada...and the desolation of the desert...all that beauty and the starkness, the opportunity and the risk. There it is, it rises up in the middle of nowhere. And people go there to gain or lose everything. There's a greater metaphor in that. We're doing it with our country right now.
JK: And how about individuals as gamblers --- like singer-songwriters, for example, who gamble with their careers?
MR: Yeah, and as individuals. I'm gambling with my life. Art is a risky occupation, but so is pretending to be someone else. Every song I write brings some new sense of electricity. I feel connected to a greater story when I write.
JK: How do you write?
MR: Seamus Heaney described how, for Wordsworth, writing was a physical thing, with a pace and rhythm --- Wordsworth walking up and down a path. When I read that, I was relieved. I didn't feel so strange. I write when my mind, heart or soul is determined to communicate something. Some days, language just runs like streetlights, and they come with a melody.
JK:"Your mascara was born to run" --- funny.
MR: That line feels brave to me. In my own sense of how I'm perceived, Springsteen is a monument. When I first wrote it, I didn't want to use it. I am relentlessly compared to Bruce. It's daunting and not really fair. I'm writing my own stories in a different time. That line rings true to me. Clearly it's a nod. But more importantly, I know that girl, I kissed her a long time ago. And I guess I wanted to offer my own peace with the constant Springsteen comparisons. I love his work, but I have no desire to be him.
JK: Your singing has been compared to passionate whispering. Did you always sing that way?
MR: No. I started out imitating Richard Butler from the Psychedelic Furs. I wanted that raw sexuality. He just sounded cool to me. Like a likable devil.
JK: The day your singing changed?
MR: I remember it, because I felt it. When you sing like I do, you get a rumble in your lower midsection. It's a whisper, but a loud whisper. Kind of like when a jet rumbles in the distance --- it's like a come on.
JK: A come on for smart adults. Maybe that's why you seem too sharp for the room. So spell it out for the lip-readers among us: What are you trying to do in these songs?
MR: Art is the wisdom we're not handed. I'm trying to collect it. I'm trying to offer comfort and hope to anyone in need. Living, being human, it can get dark. I'm always trying to encourage the good fight and a sense of connection. I hope that the "I" in my songs becomes "we."
JK: Is that glass half-full or half-empty?
MR: That depends on the weather!
JK: Wait a minute: We're talking about 4-minute rock songs!
MR: In my mind, there's enough entertainment out there. I wanna save somebody.
JK: Have you considered just enjoying yourself?
MR: No...I'm kidding. But I grew up loving important music, big music. I mean, music that made you want to sack the government or protest or jump out of an airplane. Bands like The Clash or U2 --- this was music full of idealism versus struggle and hard realities. But I couldn't help but sense it was useful because it pushed you to imagine things more equal, more humane, more possible.
JK: You're making me nervous. Underneath this, I don't hear any sense of: I've made 11 records, I'm on my 6th label, dammit, I want a hit!
MR: First off, I want to offer something useful. I think "London Calling" made a contribution.
JK: "London Calling" was a hit!
MR: Look, I'd love a hit. But to me it's meaningless if it's playing silly or vapid music. To me, a great song is like when you walk through fog, you get a mist on the skin. You may not even fully understand what a song is going on about. But that mist sticks with you, maybe it moves you along.
JK: Mist is ghostly, spectral. Is your ambition is to be the secret influence, the most important person no one knows: Zorro, Superman?
MR: You're nailing me. I always felt that fame was a decision. And I decided that fame isn't worth the risk of losing creativity or humanity. I like the idea of Zorro.
JK: Dude, take the risk!
MR: Hey, I was raised Protestant Irish, the unromantic part of being Irish. It's a mess.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Matthew Ryan vs. The Silver State, April 1, 2008
We're the iPod generation - and we've made music the soundtrack of our lives. Every spare 5 minutes I get, I will be listening to music - at work, home, in the car, on the train... it's an escape from the everyday hustle. Music is a character that we interact with and "MRVSS" has an unusual amount of character in it.
Since "May Day" was released in 1997, Matthew Ryan has been operating just beneath the radar, but you can see the waves he makes because those who have heard him hold him in high regard. Patient and persistent is Matthew Ryan's greatest strengths. World weary and wise are two words I'd associate with Ryan. His songs ache with sorrow, regret and hope all at the same time. He speaks with wisdom beyond his years, through a grit and reality heard in Springsteen, Waits and Cohen, but listening closer, you can hear The Clash and The Replacements.
Having made 11 records to date, he is both instrumental and prolific. Most importantly, he is human. Having dealt with close personal issues on "From a Late Night High Rise" and "Strays Don't Sleep" (a collaboration with Neilson Hubbard) it is clear that he needs to write songs as much as we need to hear them. This is where Ryan differs from other songwriters. There is a great deal of hope in his songs. We listen to his songs looking for an escape, but we leave being much happier with the decisions we've made, we are confident in ourselves and rock and roll can still change the world.
"MRVSS" has a live sound to it, and the band has a rock and roll spirit. The violin on opener "Dulce Et Decorum Est" cuts an Irish feel, but "American Dirt" weighs a strong melody with a biting lyric. "Hold On Firefly" and "Drunk & Disappointed" wouldn't look out of place on any punk records. "MRVSS" is not without its more delicate moments, "Jane, I Still Feel The Same" (featured on One Tree Hill) and "I Only Want To Be The Man You Want" both offer a change of pace. My own personal favourite is the concluding track, "Closing In" - full of junk and regret, with so much hope in the chorus, the song threatens to float away.
This collection of songs is saying life is good. Not perfect, but does it matter?
Oh, and what's Matthew Ryan's beef with the Silver State?
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Matthew Ryan Rocks It Again, April 3, 2008
I've loved Matthew Ryan's music since the beginning. MRVSS reinforces everything I've ever loved about Matthew Ryan. And his new band adds a great new dimension without changing the core of Ryan's musical style.
The driving bass and percussion with almost circular repetitive rhythms provides an excellent foundation to Ryan's poignant words and wonderfully broken vocals.
There's a sense of hopelessness as well as hopefulness about the songs, and it creates a very emotional listening experience. I'm tapping my foot along with a great rhythm while at the same time, I'm feeling tears well up in my eyes. And while none of the songs are conventionally "hooky," I find myself humming the melodies long after I've stopped listening.
I think this is Ryan's most mature musical effort to date, and it's got a proud place in my MR music collection. Great stuff!
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