Single Review: Ryan Vail - 'Wounds'

'Wounds' is the first single from Derry-born Ryan Vail's debut album 'For Every Silence'. Having already released 3 EPs and also graced the airwaves alongside some of radio's well known voices (Annie Mac and Zane Lowe to name but two) the future appears to be bright for this seemingly talented musician.

Described by Ryan himself as 'one of the most electronic tracks on the album' I am left hoping that there is a lot more of this blended electronic/modern classical loveliness on the album itself. The track is a fairly simple affair and that is its strength. A shimmering, pulsing bass line (with a firm nod towards techno), and a wonderfully downbeat vocal coupled with a stirring synth string arrangement, all combine majestically.

The tracks tells the story of an ignored piano longing to be played again (incidentally the piano's original owner Joe Cosgrove was a radio enthusiast, so the track is broken by a radio sample) and while there are numerous parallels with life that can be drawn here, I will leave you, dearest reader, to draw yours. The lyrical content and its delivery (from the opening line 'complicated people never spend too much time around me') are as provoking as the bass line that drives the record along. It is a track to get lost in, muse over but ultimately enjoy.

Words of Dave Nelson