![]() ![]() Ironic or absurd jokes are liberally peppered throughout, many of them seemingly at Walker’s own expense. This is a mischievous, verbose and often wryly amusing set of songs. ![]() Whilst there are still examples of the kind of dexterous acoustic guitar playing now closely associated with Walker’s music, there is also a greater sense of space and time here, enabling Walker to place greater emphasis on his lyrics. Also, it feels carefully structured and designed, with delineated parts (although not overwritten). Whilst there are huge amounts of detail in the music, there is also enough space for the vocal the creation of space and texture is explored much further later in the album. So the melodies are sometimes subservient to the overall atmosphere of a song (as on Age Old Tale) or seem deceptively limited. One of his main aims seems to be to create and explore space, both within the music and in his vocal phrasing. While The Halfwit In Me is considerably more urgent and escapist than anything else here, it does give hints of Walker’s approach to writing. It’s both energetic and delicate, played with an impressively light touch – somehow both endearingly ramshackle and virtuosic at the same time. Opening track The Halfwit In Me serves as something of a bridging point between Primrose Green’s nostalgia and the semi-autobiographical ramblings of Golden Sings. The eight songs are substantial journeys, with as many detours and digressions as Walker feels called to take, yet for the most part they are also reasonably concise (some way from the four long pieces Walker had half-jokingly threatened might constitute his next album). Primrose Green did too, although what transpires here is often more ruminative and less hurried. ![]() Produced by LeRoy Bach ( Wilco) and featuring an array of Walker’s favourite Chicago musicians, many steeped in both improvisation and a textural approach to ensemble playing, the music here sounds freewheeling and exploratory. This could all be about to change with Golden Sings That Have Been Sung, a consistently surprising third album full of Walker’s sardonic, self deprecating persona – marking him out as a dry narrative wit to match Mark Kozelek – and finding Walker exploring new and unusual musical spaces. His last album, Primrose Green, although excellent, probably didn’t help too much, given its wistful, nostalgic title, cover design and sound. He has occupied this particular area so clearly and strongly that he has largely been unable to escape interviews that focus more on his listening than his own work. Illinois singer-songwriter Ryley Walker has already carved his own niche as a guitarist and songwriter somewhat in thrall to a specific set of expansive folk influences ( John Martyn, Tim Buckley, Bert Jansch, Nick Drake). ![]()
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