Bill Ryder-Jones - lechyd Da
A crimson flare streaks across the album, littered with agonizing melancholy, cutting lyrics, and steadfast determination to build something grandiose.
By: Sam Eeckhout
lechyd Da is undeniably the pinnacle of Ryder-Jones’ career, it’s exhaustive, touching all corners of his musical landscape and making them fit together. lechyd Da sets a new benchmark for albums to come in 2024.
Six albums in, Bill Ryder-Jones has never shaken the 'ambitious' tag. From his first full-length solo in 2011 to today's lechyd Da, Ryder-Jones has pushed beyond the typical scope of singer-songwriter capabilities.
The album has an expansive atmosphere, sprawling, stretching, and reaching on its tip-toes to grab what is typically out of reach. Dense, intricate, and clever, lechyd Da moves and shifts while giving the listener room to breathe.
The opening, "I Know That It's Like This (Baby)," has three tempo changes alone. Songs from here on out are not concise but exploratory, inventive, creative, happy to create space and keep moving forward. A crimson flare streaks across the album, littered with agonizing melancholy, cutting lyrics, and steadfast determination to build something grandiose.
There is so much to chew on.
Heck, there's even a children's choir singing a chorus.
There are the classic ‘LA LA LAs’ to play us out at times.
Strings swell, horns steady moments, and beautiful melodies with heart-hitting lyrics, like on the piano ballad two songs in on "A Bad Wind Blows In My Heart." - cut deep, singing: "Oh, how I loved you,"...repeated with a marching drum pattering.
Smack dab in the middle of the experience sits "This Can't Go On," a poetic, cathartic juggernaut of a tune, and for the first time on the album, stripping back instrumentation and letting a rip.
The evolution of Ryder-Jones's solo career (post his impressive career as lead guitarist of the Coral) has been an impatient journey of accelerating his potential. Immediately pushing after his debut solo album had him more stripped back and sullen, more focused on instrumentation than lyricism - lechyd Da is the culmination of his dedication and undeniably his magnum opus.
This is an album's album. It pulls you in slowly, building a path up a mountain with a glorious view at the top if you're willing to travel.
The trip down the mountain starts with the robust "Thankfully For Anthony" - an honest confession of a checkered time in his life. It's a great representation of the album as a whole, taking its time - never being afraid to let moments sit simply, with each instrument working wonderfully together. The ending of the tune again highlights the impressive melody-making and songwriting abilities of Ryder-Jones; instead of wrapping up the devastating ending in a hurry, he serves a double dose length of the main riff for us to indulge in.
Akin to early Sufjan albums, lechyd Da is a sweeping piece of art with a gravitational pull drawing in all kinds of instruments. It is both devastating and heartwarming, grandiose in its execution without ever becoming heavy-handed.
Lechyd Da (meaning ‘cheers to good health’) will change your day; it might even change your week. Like any great art, it will stay with you; it might even change your life. Cheers to that.
