With a title that translates as ‘good health‘ from the Welsh, Bill Ryder-Jones is on fine form on this record. His first album in five years, and his fifth solo album in total, this is already lining up to be one of the records of the year. Yes, we may only be in January, but I’m prepared to stick to my guns on this.
The opening track on the album ‘I Know That It’s Like This (Baby)‘ fades in slowly, and dreamily. Making great use of a sample of Brazilian singer Gal Costa’s track ‘Baby,’ the end result is like being offered a two week summer holiday in the sun in the midst of winter. It changes speed several times – but it carries you along with it, rather than disorientating you, as it might well in lesser hands. A similar trick is pulled off on ‘Christinha‘ (yup, correct spelling!).
While it’s tempting when reviewing albums to look for highlights, the reality is that the strength of this album is that there aren’t any weak songs on it. Seriously. ‘If Tomorrow Starts Without Me’ with its affecting ‘cello might be the highlight – but it could easily be another song tomorrow. It may not have come from a great place emotionally – he and his long-term partner split up while he was making the record, and he has alluded to mental health struggles, yet there is an overriding sense of hope about the whole effort.
In fact, this is a very British psychedelic record, not in a little Englander kind of way (thank God), but it’s hard to imagine this album coming from anywhere else. His Welsh roots were an important aspect in making the album. The idea of a wide-screen album might seem a little pretentious, but there’s so much vision and beauty in this record, it conjures up a hundred different images as you play it. There’s the contribution from Mick Head reading Ulysses over the otherwise instrumental ‘…And the Sea…’ There’s a children’s choir, which is beautiful and never cloying, adding a counterpoint of innocence to some of the darker themes. The album closes with the beautiful lullaby ‘Nos Da,’ which evokes Brian Eno‘s Music For Airports, then fed through music that’s almost classical and like something from the nineteenth century.
All in all, a gorgeous, brilliant album. If you’ve never heard Bill Ryder-Jones before, this is as good a place to start as any. If you’re already a fan, you will be delighted, too. An album to play over and over again, without skipping any of the tracks. Indeed, one to buy, not just stream.
