William Tyler – Goes West
Merge Records – 25 January 2019
William Tyler’s Goes West feels in many ways like the light to Modern Country‘s shade, with the ten tunes building around strong acoustic guitar cores, instead of the lightly reverbed electric that permeated through the latter. Indeed, first track ‘Alpine Star’ contains the brightest of acoustic lines that perfectly contrasts the brooding uneasiness of ‘Highway Anxiety’. Further along, ‘Not in our Stars’ sounds like the closest thing here to the music of Modern Country, with Bradley Cook’s slightly sombre synths blending with a more melancholy guitar line to create an altogether more serious track. It works beautifully too, coming straight after ‘Alpine Star’ and then lead single ‘Fail Safe’, which has the guitar whizz rattling off a lovely set of scale lines, with his sympathetic band filling in enough (but never too much) gaps along the way. Perhaps it is the use of the acoustic as protagonist across these songs, but the record has a lighter touch than his previous work, all the while maintaining the confidence of a highly skilled guitarist and composer, which runs through his catalogue.
There are also lovely little touches peppering the tunes, many of which take several listens to fully enjoy; take Griffin Goldsmith’s drum line towards the end of ‘Venus in Aquarius’, which jumps about and sounds like a firework display coming in from a distance. The guitar refrain holding the tune is perfectly played and strong enough by itself, especially when the microphone goes in close and picks up a touch of string bounce and fret sound, but these details further lift the piece into that special place. That said, the delicate ‘Call Me When I’m Breathing Again’ is the most minimal piece on here, with pretty much just Meg Duffy’s subtle electric guitar occasionally drifting in from behind one of the album’s strongest acoustic melodies. The result is a quietly powerful song, made all the more effective when heard within the album proper, juxtaposed with the fuller tunes and helping with the overall balance of the set.
Although we all know that William Tyler is a highly proficient electric guitarist with a string of hits behind him, on this album the idea of him staying with the acoustic has helped produce his most focused album yet. That’s not to say the electric guitar doesn’t get a run out; indeed, it almost steals the show twice on ‘Man in a Hurry’, first with Duffy’s Stratocaster jumping in front of Tyler’s leisurely picking to form a gorgeous double act, and then halfway through with a spiky electric solo jabbing at the tune, giving it a sterner edge, before backing off and leaving the others to it. Like everything else on here, it is subtle, but absolutely cracking and it gently showcases this record’s ability to often surprise the listener within its thirty-eight minutes. Goes West would be ace without these little nuggets, because the melodies and the playing, both from Tyler and his excellent backing band, are so assured throughout, but with them, it has that little glint of unpredictability that raises it to something very special. Modern Country was a seriously tough act to follow, but it seems a move to California has very much agreed with this guitarist.