Think Like A Key 2024
Retro Metro
English master of alluring mimicry brings on reminiscences many a folk didn’t know they had – or needed.
Pastiche has long become an integral part of Paul Ryan’s creative method, yet there’s a time for every forte to misfire, and “Retro Metro” – a rather adorable album in a context of its own – marks the moment when the artist also known as Trip is about to appeal strictly to his fans. To his credit, the Brit doesn’t try and play the “long lost platter by an obscure ensemble” card, preferring instead to simply play the sounds he absorbed as a kid, the ’60s beat music, but the stylistic perspective of the singer-songwriter’s eleventh full-length offering can be attributed to any number of paint-by-numbers band from that era. As a result, while this record’s sonic elements are spot-on, their melodic originality and memorability are not.
Perfectly channeling the period’s innocence from instrumental “Retro Metro Theme” onwards and moving beyond organ’s shimmer and guitar’s twang that add a futuristic layer to sweet arrangements on the life-affirming likes of “Take It From Me” – with everything played solely by Ryan – which make the listener reminisce about quite a few vaguely familiar goldies-oldies, Paul evokes warm atmosphere of yore. His vocal harmonies elevate the country-tinctured “Lies” and the harmonica-helped “Tell It Like It Is” and lead “Mary Jane” to the verge of deliciousness, but even one voice is enough to make “You Look Right Through Me” feel special. And if “Another Me” smells like Blighty, “Just A Song” precedes it with a San Franciscan aroma, and such Transatlantic arcs seem more romantic than simple tunes behind them, although “Just Me & You” provides an invigorating finale to this groovy work.
So spin “Retro Metro” again and again, and get in the groove you forgot you loved.
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