Just as labelling Reuben Myles Tyghe’s previous musical vehicle, Port Erin, a rock band would be to miss almost everything that made it so special, calling Reuben’s Daughters merely a pop band is to do it a similar disservice. It’s like saying that those Beatles chaps could carry a tune or that Rudolf Nureyev liked to cut a rug. And if Leylanding is his band’s “difficult second album,” the songs land effortlessly on the listener’s ear.
If the debut Mami Wata was a record of a turbulent time in Tyghe’s life, with Leylanding we find him more settled and facing up to the responsibilities of adult life, of being a father, a partner, and everything that comes with those roles. Where once he was squaring up to the world, now we see him going with the flow.
“The Forgetting Dawn” is wonderfully typical of his approach; rather than kick off the album with a bang, he eases us in with a drifting, delicate, and deliciously seductive slice of soulful pop, a song built on the ebb and flow of liquid and languid sonics. Beautiful!
Similarly, “Little Wanderer,” dedicated to his daughter, speaks volumes about where he is today, a straightforward love song set to shimmering folk-pop poise. “Choose Me” is jaunty and energetic, but even those energies are somehow understated, infectious rather than bombastic, supple and subtle but never invasive, which gets to the heart of much of the music found here.
And if the spacious “You Think About It” runs on some beatific beats, those spaces between are where all manner of musical motifs and incidental sounds are allowed to pool and percolate. Buried deep in the song but you can’t imagine the song without them – they are the parts that the song is more than the sum of….if you get what I mean! There is also a great one-two punch found in the gorgeous rush of “Another Contradiction” being followed by the slow-burning, late-night serenade of “26,” a fantastic juxtaposition that perfectly reveals the album’s broad and adventurous sonic spectrum.
Mami Wata was a striking debut album. Leylanding is the perfect next step for the band and, indeed, in Reuben Myles Tyghe’s creative evolution.
