West Kirby County Primary

At only 32, Bill Ryder-Jones was already midway into the second and third phases of an impressive career. A Brit-pop guitar prodigy, he joined Merseyside jangle pop heroes the Coral when he was just 13 and was an integral part of their sound until increasing mental health issues forced him to leave the band for good in 2008. His first post-Coral endeavor ended up being a series of film scores for several short films. An orchestral, all-instrumental solo album followed, and in 2013, he delivered his first proper song-based solo album, the haunting A Bad Wind Blows in My Heart. In spite of his personal turmoil, Ryder-Jones has remained a highly functioning artist, pouring himself fully into music that is warmly intimate and highly introspective. Like its predecessor, 2015's West Kirby County Primary is a deeply reflective album and was once again written and recorded largely at his childhood home in North West England. The windswept melancholia also remains, though the construction of West Kirby is quite looser than A Bad Wind, with tempos and instrumentation that ebb and flow under the singer's hushed, cracked voice. An electric, decidedly band-oriented feel livens up tracks like the lovely "Two to Birkenhead," a midtempo rocker whose lonesome lyrics melt perfectly into the album's cleverest of chord sequences. Another high point, the warm and weary rock ballad "Wild Roses," flashes Ryder-Jones' grace as a pop craftsman, as does the easy-mannered groove of "You Can't Hide a Light with the Dark." There are thundering rockers and gentle musings, sometimes within the same song, as the tender verses of "Let's Get Away from Here" give way to massive, unhinged guitar squalls that are as angry as they are exuberant. As personal and inward-gazing as Ryder-Jones' songs are, he imbues them with a weary comfort, inviting listeners along rather than detaching himself, and if making fine albums like West Kirby County Primary is his form of therapy, he's bound for success.