\u201cI want my music to carry multiple emotions, just like every experience,\u201d says the writer and performer known as Eddy Lee Ryder. \u201cNostalgia, absurdity, humor, and sorrow.\u201d It\u2019s a deft summary of an album\u2014Ryder\u2019s 2024 release Sweet Delusions<\/i>\u2014that hits that bullseye dead center.<\/p>\n
Ryder\u2019s kaleidoscopic singer-songwriter material ranges from country-folk to traditional vocal jazz to classic rock; what binds it all together is Ryder\u2019s unique persona and perspective, born of experience but also infused with stagecraft from the very start. For example: Eddy Lee Ryder is a moniker, a neon silhouette of the outsized persona and attitude that singer-songwriter Liz Brennan takes on when writing and performing.<\/p>\n
Ryder has described Sweet Delusions<\/i> as a breakup album, a catalog of life lessons centered around a friendship that flared brightly before crashing and burning. Each track here is built around Ryder\u2019s penetrating, effortlessly charismatic voice emerging from within a sort of gauzy, dream-state sonic landscape, the kind where everything you want stays just out of reach.<\/p>\n
The opening title track sets the tone, framed and arranged like a Motown fantasia co-produced by Phil Spector, complete with pulsing backbeat, heavy echo and sweeping strings as Ryder sings \u201cYou\u2019re holding onto her \/ I\u2019m holding onto sweet delusions.\u201d The message is clear: even self-awareness isn\u2019t always enough to save us from ourselves when we\u2019re in the grip of a crush. <\/p>\n
Next, Ryder delves further into her self-described \u201cdemented Americana\u201d bag of tricks, as \u201cHighwaymen\u201d delivers a thrummy, pulsing number about the aforementioned friendship, complete with the suggestion that they \u201cTake to the sky like Thelma and Louise.\u201d Then \u201cBad Decisions\u201d presents a laconic, soulful country-folk ballad featuring acoustic guitar and slide accents as Ryder sings: \u201cDon\u2019t say you love me if you\u2019re just passing by\u2026 I feel the wild winds blow \/ And they\u2019re blowing me apart.\u201d<\/p>\n
From there she offers a smorgasbord of slightly off-kilter renderings: \u201cJoke Is On Me\u201d is a cantering mid-tempo number drenched in shimmery echo; \u201cAntarctica\u201d features more echo and evocative piano; \u201cShoop Shoop Shut Up\u201d is a bluesy Motown lament featuring Hammond and a chorus of background vocalists surrounding Ryder\u2019s luminous lead; and \u201cOnly Real Cowboy\u201d sketches a loping, countrified story-song. <\/p>\n
Mixed in between and all around are a scattering of memorable moments. Ryder sings in the swaying, oh-so-bittersweet \u201cPennyroyal Tea\u201d that \u201cI was never home to you \/ You were home to me\u201d (ouch), before returning to the chase with \u201cSimple Touch,\u201d an upbeat entreaty for a little physical affection, as straightforward as its title. Later on, \u201cSmoke and Mirrors\u201d brings a taste of honky-tonk rock and roll to the party as Ryder and her married friends play a game of \u201cthe grass is always greener.\u201d <\/p>\n
The album finishes with \u201cCountry Fair,\u201d dreamy acoustic ballad of longing and missed opportunities. \u201cIf I write you a beautiful song, will you call for me today? \/ I got me a wandering heart that was yours to lock away.\u201d Ryder receives sterling support here and throughout from producer Dave Cerminara (Father John Misty) and longtime FJM drummer \/ musical director Dan Bailey, along with multi-instrumentalist Daniel Chae (Zach Bryan, Kacey Musgraves) and keyboardists Todd Caldwell (Crosby Stills & Nash, James Taylor) and Dave Shepard.<\/p>\n
Sweet Delusions<\/i> is one of those albums that feels like it takes place in a pocket universe all its own, a series of familiar soundscapes tweaked and reformed around the distinctive, beguiling voice and songs of Eddy Lee Ryder. As its gently kitschy album art suggests, Sweet Delusions<\/i> offers a ride you won\u2019t soon forget.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":35167,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[11031],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-47048","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-eddy-lee-ryder","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/47048","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\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/47048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=47048"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=47048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}