A first full listen of Monahan’s Stop Saying I can be an odd experience. Is this a folk album? Rock? Indie? Jazz? Is it happy? Moody? Bright? Dark?
Yeah, it’s all that, and in many musical cases this meandering means trouble.
But is doesn’t here, as the ambitious voice of one Ryan Monahan makes this eight-song kaleidoscope an unmitigated success and a constant surprise.
With a voice of emotive power, Monahan moves through Stop Saying I with playful purpose while drawing lyrical inspiration from Leonard Cohen and The Tibetan Book of the Dead. Sure it’s a bit high-brow, but damn if it isn’t worth hearing.
Take Offset, a ranging song about Ugandan children soldiers with bits of world tones (a la Peter Gabriel) and gentle acoustic bridges that evolve into instrumental explosions. The complicated song moves through genres with ease, guided along by Monahan’s confident voice. It’s stunning work.
You want that alt-indie feel? Try Moving Targets. Quiet ballads? There’s Love Me Sober and The Pendulum’s Heart, which could be an outtake from Sting’s masterpiece Nothing Like the Sun. And Dirty Talk has Monahan rocking out, punctuated with falsetto yelps and screeching guitar solos. The song comes out of nowhere but feels necessary, as if Monahan needed to break the silence in a quiet room of curious onlookers.
Stop Saying I is bold, full of effort and endeavor, and within its wending ways has something for everyone.
