Ryley Walker is a musician who I've gone for to some degree in the past, without ever falling completely for a single album. He has a new one out now called Course in Fable which Uncut Magazine have just awarded their Album of the Month. I'll give it a listen now.
He's a musician who thrives on melody, albeit cyclycle, circular melody. His is something of a Prog Folk sound. As a fan of the latter but not really the former, this leaves me in the undecided lane when it comes to much of his music.
Course in Fable has its definite moments of beauty and grace. He definitely knows his Van Morrison and Nick Drake, and when he wanders through their fields I'm rather taken. But then he'll vault a stile for no good reason into neighbouring Pink Floyd and King Crimson territory and I'm tempted to give up on him altogether and find something more to my liking to listen to.
So this record is a game of two halves, a curate's egg, or whatever your own simile of choice for a mixed experience might be. Ultimately, I find Walker rather a fussy operator who should sit down and enjoy the view to a much greater degree than he allows himself to do. Not a record I can see myself returning to this one.
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