It starts off slow and builds to a frantic frenetic climax without even losing that clarity that allows us to appreciate every single note and envisage Ryley in front of us, head down, hair shaking playing it live. Sullen Mind is another song that lasts over six minutes but every single second feels vital to its impact. It's music at its most powerful and emotive. Its sparsity heightens the impact of every word, the pathos, the mind racked with doubt that's being pored over is laid bare for everyone to view - 'I'm no meadow, there's no water to drink'. The opening to Funny Thing She Said merely emphasizes this, you can hear the whispering brush of the drums, every depression of the piano key, each quiver in Ryley's voice as he picks over the bones of a relationship. A Choir Apart is much shorter, but no less impactful, starting with almost tribal shuffling drum beat and again the richness and depth of production captures every little intonation in the voice. The instrumentation is very clear, crisp and you can hear every subtlety in both the music and the world-weariness in Ryley's voice as he lays into himself of the opening track Halfwit In Me, reflecting on his tendency to 'stay out all night' but it's when the song turns into what feels like a beautiful improvised jam that feels both incredibly simple yet unfeasibly complex at the same time that it really blossoms. What Bach's production brings to the album is a sense of space. We'd witnessed most of these songs at a last-minute solo show (due to Danny Thompson's illness) at the Band On The Wall back in February and this record is no disappointment. What this means though is that Golden Sings is the closest he's come so far to laying down that wild raw improvisational spirit that makes his live shows unique and such a joy to behold. He recorded the album back in his adopted home town of Chicago with Wilco multi-instrumentalist LeRoy Bach and the scars and battle wounds of that tour cycle are writ all over the album. Golden Sings sees Ryley in reflective mood as most of the songs on the record were put down as he finished a gruelling stint of touring Primrose Green and with a heavy rock and roll lifestyle taking its toll. The press release describes it as a coming of age, we'd go further and describe it as his masterpiece. It's an album that captures, as much as can be, the essence and spirit of Ryley's intense and thrilling live shows. Golden Sings That Have Been Sung is Ryley Walker's third album following the underground successes of debut All Kinds Of You and last year's follow-up Primrose Green.

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