Anytime Matthew Ryan announces a new album, the year in music suddenly gets better. He’s not only one of the best songwriters working today, he’s also one of the most honest, and I’ve gained incredible respect for the approach he has taken to managing his career in an age of complete uncertainty in the music business. In The Dusk Of Everything is set for release October 30, made entirely out of Ryan’s own pocket and said to be a rather sparse affair.
In this day of over-produced drivel, Ryan is set to release the final part of his trilogy of albums that started with 2010’s Dear Lover and continued with last year’s I Recall Standing As Though Nothing Could Fall, both brilliant in their own right. Here then is the first taste of In The Dusk Of Everything, the acoustic ballad “She’s A Sparrow”. Stripped down to just Ryan’s raspy, affecting vocal with acoustic guitar, it’s an emotional performance of a love that has faded and is about to leave, and the second guessing and futile hope of still making it work that we hold on to. The quiet musical arrangement allows you to focus on Ryan’s lyrical mastery, there are simply few better in this genre.