{"id":11335,"date":"2018-10-10T14:24:18","date_gmt":"2018-10-10T18:24:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.altwire.net\/?p=11335"},"modified":"2023-12-06T06:40:12","modified_gmt":"2023-12-06T11:40:12","slug":"album-review-william-ryan-key-virtue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/altwire.net\/de\/album-review-william-ryan-key-virtue\/","title":{"rendered":"[Album Review] William Ryan Key – Virtue"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s perhaps too easy to forget that taking steps in the right direction isn\u2019t always the simplest task. There\u2019s a shrewd shred of self-awareness in that knowledge: the realization that maybe it just isn\u2019t going the way you had in mind. Maybe it isn\u2019t going to be okay.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s also easy to forget that one day, someday, it\u2019s going to be.<\/p>\n

In a review that seems a very long time ago, a statement was made that William Ryan Key<\/a><\/strong>'S DREIZEHN<\/em> was \u201ca body of work that benefited beautifully from the past\u201d, a medley of growth and meditation that encapsulated in itself a sense of self-awareness. While eyeing Schl\u00fcssel<\/strong>\u2019s younger self with a mixture of both weariness and something close to nostalgia for much of its duration, the majority of DREIZEHN <\/em>directed its attention inwardly, feeding off the memories and mistakes of a different life \u2013 and taking steps forward to move past them. Maybe at one point or another it wasn\u2019t okay, but DREIZEHN<\/em> represented the ever elusive light at the end of the tunnel, or the very first dizzying breath of fresh air upon resurfacing from beneath the water after staying down for far too long.<\/p>\n

With this in mind, it\u2019s rather fitting to note just how naturally Virtue<\/em> continues this growth, with \u2018The Bowery\u2019 and \u2018Mortar and Stone\u2019 both picking up perfectly where \u2018Great Unknown\u2019 stylistically left off, while also fleshing out the barer acoustics of DREIZEHN<\/em> with greater depth of instrumentation through the inclusion of piano and percussive elements. With these implemented, Schl\u00fcssel<\/strong>\u2019s catharsis sees itself shifted far more noticeably into the realms of a moodier, intoxicatingly textured Daughter<\/strong>-esque indie rock direction, or perhaps somewhat akin to the likes of Of Monsters and Men<\/strong>\u2019s hauntingly poignant Beneath The Skin<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Take for example the EP\u2019s title track: while beginning in a similar vein to DREIZEHN<\/em>\u2019s \u2018Old Friends\u2019 through quietly pacing itself with gentle acoustic guitar, and Schl\u00fcssel<\/strong>\u2019s sombre croon of \u201cI could wait on an answered prayer, if I believed there was someone there\u201d<\/em>, the track soon crescendos into huge swathes of reverb-laced percussion (and the kind of piercing guitar work that would be right at home on Daughter<\/strong>'S Not To Disappear<\/em>), and in doing so becomes something so much more entrancing to behold.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, \u2018Downtown (Up North)\u2019 easily displays the closest example of Schl\u00fcssel<\/strong> almost completely replicating the stripped back aesthetics of DREIZEHN<\/em>, and this is where a subtle juxtaposition in Schl\u00fcssel<\/strong>\u2019s choice of stylistic direction becomes a little more noticeable. With the beautifully ambient introductory \u2018The Same Direction\u2019 compared to the more \u201cDREIZEHN<\/em>-esque\u201d \u2018Downtown (Up North), it\u2019s easy enough to highlight Virtue<\/em>\u2019s very deliberate inclusion of more ambitious instrumentation and songwriting. And in doing so, Virtue<\/em> not only represents a further example of William Ryan Key<\/strong>\u2019s \u201cpost-Gelbe Karte<\/strong>-solo-career\u201d, but also represents plenty of Schl\u00fcssel<\/strong>\u2019s own inner monologue and internal debate on just what exactly he wants this new material to be.<\/p>\n

The shining, spectacular example of this ambition easily finds itself explored throughout Virtue<\/em>\u2019s clearest and most defining moment: the concluding \u2018No More, No Less\u2019. While structurally remaining generally reserved for the majority of its 5 minute run time, focusing on a simple repeating melody and Schl\u00fcssel<\/strong>\u2019s synthesized, vocoder-enhanced vocals, \u2018No More, No Less\u2019 nevertheless sees William Ryan Key<\/strong> at his finest. If it wasn\u2019t the gorgeously textured crescendos that appear throughout the middle and ending sections of the track, then it would be the raw and openhearted nature of Schl\u00fcssel<\/strong>\u2019s lyricism, such as \u201cI\u2019ve found a home, I\u2019ll drift alone \u2013 it doesn\u2019t matter what you say\u201d<\/em>, oder \u201cam I gonna survive when I\u2019m out in the wild, am I gonna belong?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

To once again touch on the words of a previous review, it was highlighted that William Ryan Key<\/strong>'S DREIZEHN<\/em> \u201cstared it all in the face admirably\u201d when taking into account the personal hardships and rediscovery of musical identity over recent years, and Virtue<\/em> is no different in this regard. If anything, Virtue <\/em>establishes Schl\u00fcssel<\/strong>\u2019s foothold as an exceptionally honest songwriter with a far greater sense of self-confidence, completely without hesitancy to put out into the world what most would prefer remain hidden away. It\u2019s hardly the simplest task taking steps in the right direction stylistically when half the time you yourself are perhaps unsure of what exactly the end goal is going to be, but it\u2019s in this journey that William Ryan<\/strong> Schl\u00fcssel<\/strong> finds himself displaying some fantastically poignant songwriting.<\/p>\n

As for what may come next, it\u2019s simply one more step.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s perhaps too easy to forget that taking steps in the right direction isn\u2019t always the simplest task. There\u2019s a … Weiterlesen …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":11337,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","transcript_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[6,36,1688],"class_list":["post-11335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews","tag-featured","tag-notables","tag-william-ryan-key","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-50"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/altwire.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/altwire.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/altwire.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/altwire.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/75"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/altwire.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/altwire.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/altwire.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/altwire.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/altwire.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/altwire.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}