Matthew Ryan continues to release essential music about our current times. Recently, he released a new maxi-single under the name The Pines at Night. The lead song is entitled “Song for a Hard Year” and is available on Bandcamp.
During the pandemic, I’ve often played a game with myself where I look back on my life and imagine how I would have experienced the shutdowns at different times in my life. I can imagine the pandemic being devastating for me during certain periods. How would I have mustered through my last year of high school? What if it occurred during those years I had people close to me in nursing homes? Where would I have turned if it happened during that year I’d just moved to a new town where I didn’t know anyone or right after a serious breakup? And where would I be if it happened that year I met my wife?
These questions and others always bring me back to connecting with others who are actually in those stages of their own lives right now. In many ways, Ryan uses his music the way I’ve used my “game,” as a way to find common humanity and connections.
Like Ryan’s other EP releases in the last few years like On Our Death Day and Fallen Ash & Embers, his new release gets down to the bone of what many are feeling and experiencing in these unusual times. But Ryan notes that these tracks also constitute a “personal shift” for him.
“Song for a Hard Year,” aided by Doug Lancio’s work on the slide resonator guitar, reflects on what many have felt during the pandemic. Yet, the song is personal and timeless, transcending any one historical catastrophe.
Pay special attention to the beauty of the lyrics, especially when the song warns you to pay close attention: “I’ll try to say / What I haven’t been able to say/ In the next verse.” The singer tells us, “I lost some friends / The world’s gone to shit.”
Beneath the singer’s reflection, he asserts he is not giving up. And he ends with a question we all are asking right now, “Are we in the clear?”
The second song is “Swim Like You Were on Fire.” It features Ryan’s voice over piano, a continuation of his work with that instrument from his 2020 EP Life is Beautiful. With this new song, Ryan sends a message of endurance for those living through hard times.
Finally, the maxi-single ends with what Ryan describes as a “surprise recording of an earlier song that’s been walking with me quite a bit lately.” It is listed as “A Living Song (Free Bonus New Recording of MML).” Longtime fans, however, will recognize the track as a new acoustic version of “Me & My Lover,” one of my favorite songs from Ryan’s East Autumn Grin album from 2000. It is a love song amidst worldwide turmoil.
As noted earlier, Matthew Ryan released this maxi-single under the name The Pines at Night instead of under his own name. He reported on Bandcamp, “I just didn’t feel I could emerge from this hard time in the same mode that I occupied before ‘it.'”
Additionally, although he has limited his participation on social media in recent months, he further explained on Facebook, “I wanted a change that welcomed the collaborative nature of my work with all my friends that give so much of themselves. And obviously, The Pines at Night means something to me, it pretty much describes where I’ve been… I love that it’s conceptual.”
These songs are available for purchase on Bandcamp. Ryan plans to use the money raised from the music to help fund his next album (which will not include these tracks). So head over to Bandcamp to treat your ears, mind, and heart while supporting great music.
What do you think of the music? Leave your two cents in the comments.