Applying to college has served to make me hyper-aware of teenage prodigies: black belts, novelists, full-fledged scientists, all at the age of 18. A self-taught composer at 12 and current regular on the New Hampshire and Massachusetts club circuits, newcomer Ryan Schmidt most definitely belongs on that ever-so-daunting list, however much of a complex that may give me. <\/p>\n
Burning Bitter Years, <\/i>Schmidt\u2019s debut EP, is a promising, five-song slice of downbeat rock, all lovelorn lyrics and smooth delivery \u00e0 la John Mayer with a raw edge that is all Schmidt’s own. <\/p>\n
Album opener \u201cGoing Dark\u201d is a solid launching point, an unabashedly catchy track with shimmering bursts of guitar and anchoring drums. Despite the cynicism of lines like \u201cThere is no happily ever after \/ Happiness is only found with an eight-dollar movie ticket \/ And love is only captured with a steel frame and a dying rose \/ And love is just an endless sea, a sea of dreamers anyway,\u201d the song unfolds with an almost jaunty, resoundingly indomitable spiritedness. My only caveat with this song is a few instances where the lyrics devolve into clich\u00e9s or general cheesiness (\u201cThe lights are on but nobody\u2019s home,\u201d and \u201cI\u2019m sometimes hard to read \/ Like a book written in Chinese,\u201d for example), a disappointing contrast to the aforementioned moments of vibrant imagery. <\/p>\n
Next up, the EP\u2019s title track begins with moody, fuzzed flickers of guitar and brooding vocals: \u201cBurning bitter years \/ You can do anything, anything at all,\u201d Schmidt croons as the instrumentation slowly builds to its fiery climax. This track is definitely a winner, a fine-tuned, resonant depiction of the raw struggle to succeed.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
\u201cTen Days\u201d rambles along with a folksy feel to it, the pulsating guitars of the previous two songs swapped for acoustic strumming and piano chords, as the events of, you guessed it, 10 days are recounted. The lyrics grow progressively tenser as the days unfold, until Schmidt is left lamenting, \u201cTwo days left and I\u2019m starving, starving from what I can\u2019t decide \/ Will my hunger fade with the sunset of and the rising tide?\u201d\u00a0 <\/p>\n
\u201cSleepwalking Days\u201d is more toned down, though still brimming with spurts of guitar jangling and lush harmonies, while final track \u201cLife Is News To Him\u201d is stripped down to Schmidt\u2019s warm, endearing vocals and accompanying acoustic guitar, a quiet, introspective gem that serves well to round the EP out. <\/p>\n
Singer-songwriters have it especially tough when it comes to traversing new territory in a genre where everything has seemingly already been said and molded into winning metaphors; nevertheless, Schmidt puts his spin on the tried-and-true busker conventions, and with well-crafted lyrics and solid instrumentation, he has more than made his mark on the music scene.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":29035,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[8066],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-40550","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-ryan-schmidt","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40550"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=40550"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=40550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}