Reviews: Rydell - Hard On The Trail
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Railroad
Rydell - Hard on the trail. Musically this reminds me of Hot Water Music witha touch of Texas is the reason. Melodic but with lots of energy delivering the goods with good old rock n roll guitars and solid drums and bass lines. Not too loud and not soft, a perfect combination in this record that really works.
Embrace (http://www.icestormcity.com/ircsax/embrace)
English emo survivors Rydell is back with their 2nd album, and my guess is - nothing you hoped for are here. Yes, it's like the band taking snippets of all the music they know and inventing a new musical language from it.
First, there's the husky-hoarse voice. I've been think of comparing the way Miles voice can convey inner torture and unbridled energy within the same twist of a line with Chuck from HWM, but forget about any vocal lineage. Don't even try to compare notes on both talented souls.
Then, there are the songs. Just within perhaps the simple constraints of electric guitars, bass, drums (with the extraordinary other instruments arrangements), they creates a dense but immediate emotional melodies that cannot be pinned down with any of their old songs that I've heard before. You will forgive them tho because of the tingling, longing, pain, and hope, heart-broke genius of "Fire At The End Of The Street", "Cut To End", and especially the lyrics to "Ground Never Held Me", where's it all come from?
The words surely have meaning, because all the significance is in the tone of the singing, and you just can hear the emotion behind each line, and everything that bursting out of the emotionally-laden musical nuances. All this just makes me wonder why they felt like including a cover version of "Boys Of Summer" by Don Henley when their own numbers is already desperate, filthy, and depressing.
Critics may find "Hard On The Trail" sounds new, and may look at the complicated things and try to simplify them. To me, it's already a damn good record.
Kerosene
If our SEVEN HATE were the europeean SAMIAN, RYDELL are in their case the HOT WATER MUSIC. I was longing for this record since "Per Ardua Astra"from 2001. It was quite long and we only had a compilation of 7", splits.. to wait. But the wait is forgotten when "Hard On The Trail" starts and blows everything on his way. The voice is goddamn cool and the precense of HWM dissipates behind melodies as CAP N JAZZ, BRAID, or even LIFETIME, crazy vocal lines 'shifter" (best song on the records), intros that should make Chriss Wollard feel bad... Punk Rock as we would more often listen to into the good record shops news. Buy or Die!
We love from the Underground
Here we have the new CD from RYDELL of England. I know these guys so far only from the Split 7"with HOT WATER MUSIC and this split is still getting dusty in my record collection. However, this new CD I will repeatedly insert every day. It's good mood music in the style of Lifetime, only somewhat more melodic. It genuinely pleases and suprises. Altogether 11 Songs and not a weak song was noticeable. Thus people should check out RYDELL !!!
Mass Movement (http://wakeup.to/massmovement)
Rydell are one of those bands that have invited a lot of comparisons over the years but have been crafting themselves a very defined sound of their own all the time.
Miles' raspy vocals will invite the obligatory and lazy Hot Water Music comparisons and whilst there are hints of Gainesvilles finest at their most emo Rydell really come at you from a different direction.
Conjuring moments of bands like Superchunk at their driving best or Samiam's use of guitar melodies. Hard on the trail is one hell of a solid record, packed full of melody, controlled agression and raw heart on the sleeve emotion. From the confessional Born Witness, that tugs at the heartstrings whilst sneaking up to bash you on the head at then same time, to the Fugazi-esque groove of Analysis Of The Evidence, Hard on the trail will leave you satisfied.
And Whilst Don Henley's Boys of summer won't please the kids as much as the ataris version it does bring a raw passion and provides a great close to what is an awesome record.
Save Your Scene (http://www.saveyourscene.com)
They are one of the main English emo bands and one of their most impostant releases is a split 7" with Hot Water Music did after a tour with them.
Rydell play a kind of emo that both with lyrics and music never fall into melancholy. Musically the comparison with Hot Water Music is immediate maybe due to the rough voice.
After more listenings we can understand that maybe their inflences come also from other kinds of emo, for examplein slower and more rock parts they remind me a lot to the old Doghouse Records bands like Split Lip or Chamberlain to name a few. So it is an emo more rock them punk that doesn't fear to quote names of the old rock as Don Hanley(Eagles). The last song of the album is (Boys Of Summer) is a cover, and is not an Ataris song (they also did a video for that song) as some of you may think, but is a song of the Eagles singer. This track is really well done and played in a style different to the the other songs of the album, it has screamed vocal parts in a really Grade style.
Finally maybe this s not a record that will change something in your life but surelly it will make you play guitar and drums in the air for a while!
Punk News (http://punknews.org/reviews.php?op=albumreview&id=2937)
RYDELL have always been a band that had to work hard for the good reputation they've gained these days. The five british guys toured their asses off, released split CDs with many bands, including a quite popular Gainesville-Band, but somehow RYDELL never seemed to get the recognition they deserved. They definitely play honest music, with honest melodies and honest lyrics. They've been part of the scene for a long time now and there's definitely no reason to question the bandīs integrity. "Hard On The Trail" is the new release of these five musicians.
The singer knows how to express the mood of the songs with his well-known voice. Whatīs typical, at least on every Rydell-release, is the particular sadness and melancholy in the songs, although they can be quite punky on the one hand and yet quite catchy-pop-alike on the other. The guitars are distorted in certain parts but clean and full of harmony in other parts. Rydell also play fantastic pop-parts, a trademark of this band.
One can read "always stay true" in the credits and I know that the band itself has always been the best example in realising that. With "Hard On The Trail" Rydell play the music they always did and do what they were always best at. It's quite understandable that Rydell are called the British HOT WATER MUSICī. "Hard On The Trail" does not kick in directly after the first listening. One first has to cope with some quite tricky rhythms and unexpected and surprising melodies. But after doing this RYDELL are a mans best friend and songs like "Awkward Times", "Born Witness" and "Analysis Of The Evidence" become so familiar it's clear that they have the potential to become personal top-hits.
"Hard On The Trail" contains eleven Songs, which are an ideal fix for every HOT WATER MUSIC and SAMIAM - nerd. Song No. 11 is the cover "Boys Of Summer" we already know from bands like THE ATARIS, but Rydellīs version is better by far. It shows the courage of these musicians too as Rydell did not try to make it sound original or too catchy but more in the style of their own rocking band.
As it seems this Band will always be Englandīs un-crowned kings of the melodic hardcore genre. To the people out there wanting to listen to honest, passionate music with lots of energy, I can say RYDELL are the perfect deal. "Hard On The Trail" is definitely one of the most important indie records so far in 2004. It's an amazing record!
Source Lost During Site Update
British music label Engineer Records has made its mission statement since its 1999 inception to find independent rock bands that, well, rock, anywhere in the world. They didn't have to look far for England's Rydell, trash art mavens that bash and roll right in Engineer's back yard. The Kent, England quintet emits Weezer-esque flavor but with more shades and intricacies on its debut, "Hard on the Trail."
Guitarists David Gamage and Mark Wilkinson spend the duration dueling each other in contrasting shapes and forms, and when they cross their instruments, the hording sound has all the subtleness of a dirty bomb in the town square. Miles Booker is one of those rare souls with a distinctive dry rasp for a voice, giving these songs a unique personality from the garage-y crowd. "Cut to End" is an especially loaded song, while "Analysis of the Evidence" possesses a rare, smooth delivery that booms insidious pyrotechnics on the chorus. The second half of the disc largely succumbs to hushed, lamentable tones.
"Fire at the End of the Street" has Booker thinking aloud, 'this is all lost in time, but I'll remember a moment my whole life, a second, a glance in time." On "Ground Never Held Me," Booker asks, "Do you wonder, in the shadows, was all the time spent waiting worth it for the rewards?" Rydell ends "Hard on the Trail" with a cover of Don Henley's "Boys of Summer," and they spin it into an emotional, searing ride.
It feels like a perfect fit to their meta-rhythmic cadre and bipolar dynamics. Music of this nature, normally confining and easily susceptible to stagnation, rings full of possibility and vibrancy in Rydell's hands.
Source Lost During Site Update
This third album of Rydell is unfortunately their parting album and thus says good-bye one the best Emo of volume, which was often compared with rougher volume of the category such as Hot Water Music.
The music is passionate with much power, and pulls itself by the whole eleven Songs. The tidy portion hard core into that partly geschrienen Vocals clearly and partly reminds me of Steel Rules those, which already published records on Engineer.
At the end that CD gibt's still another Cover of Don Henley's "Boys OF buzzer", which a nice end of the album is. With the Artwork for that CD Rydell made also everything correctly, the simplicity Design are well with the colors booklets co-ordinated. Rydell are in any case interesting for lovers of hot Water Music, Liftime, Braid, Samaiam or Cap'n jazz.
Source Lost During Site Update
Presumably not named after teen idol Bobby Rydell (he was big in the early Sixties in the hysteria vacuum between Elvis's army induction and the arrival of the Beatles), Rydell are, according to Engineer Records "emo champions".
But, presumably past "emo champions" cos this is described as their 'third and final full length album". Have they split? A look on the net revealed nothing. If so, it seems a shame cos Hard on the Trail... is really rather good and, the emo tag, which will certainly damn them in some quarters, isn't wholly accurate. Sure, there's Hot Water Music in there but there's plenty of raw aggression, old punk style. And, that's not all.
There's an indie/alt rock aspect to Rydell that surely takes them firmly out of a simple emo categorisation. Songs like Darkness Before Home and Analysis of the Evidence ("And it goes on/And it goes on") could have been recorded for a late Eighties Peel session by chancers from Britain's industrial wastelands, or by Shellac. Once again, it's why bands shouldn't be pigeon-holed and why NOISE CULTURE strives for diversity.
Maybe vocalist Miles Booker agrees as he's wearing a Motley Crue t-shirt on a pic in the insert? His vocals are rawer than raw but like most rough and ready things in life, once encountered they soon reveal their own appeal. His passion certainly can't be faulted and that's maybe where the emo tag took hold? It's all irrelevant cos the eleven tracks here are eminently listenable, with the kind of crashing guitars and angular arrangements that should endear them to most admirers of determinedly ragged rock.
But, what the Hell do I know? Engineer Records have plenty of suggestions for whom Rydell sound like: "For fans of Appleseed Cast, Braid, Cap 'n' Jazz. Get Up Kids, Hot Water Kids, Jimmy Eat World, Lifetime, Pop Unknown, Promise Ring, Samiam, Slit Lip". Now you know, now you know...
Source Lost During Site Update
Musically Rydell is pretty predictable, I'd say. I mean, they sound a lot like many of the bands that are popular right now within modern hardcore, emo and punk-music, but I still like this album. Not because it has anything new, but because it's more memorable than a lot of what's being released within this genre at the moment. And where else are you going to get a full-blown hardcore-cover of Don Henley's "Boys of Summer" anyway?
Source Lost During Site Update
This third full length album from Rydell proves that they just keep getting better and better. Compared with hardcore luminaries from Hot Water Music to Chamberlain and Get Up Kids to Joan Of Arc but still they come back with their own expressive, definitive sound and original blend of what they feel hardcore should be. Passionate lyrics sung and screamed over music that can be both melodic, mellow and damn powerful all at once. These eleven tracks will have you happily wandering through hardcoreland and for a good forty minutes you'll be taken away from the everyday grind.
