Bobby Would - STYX LP

Bobby Would - STYX LP (Digital Regress/USA)

Written by Erin O:

Listening notes: STYX — named for the river that, in Greek mythology, is the boundary between Earth and the underworld — is music as catharsis. The ache of this record begins even before a note of music, with an inscription: "to my mother, Elisabeth-Maria Kessel, 1965-2022." Bobby Would's delivers lyrics in a quiet, almost weepy monotone, the words surrounded by chiming lullabye-esque synth and guitar tones that echo not only in sound, but in the emotional reality of the hollowness left by living in a different physical and spiritual world than someone you've loved. If this album had a color, it would be soft metallic violet with a green shift.

Mood: Perpetual dusk.

They Say:

"Bobby's back with a brand new swing. STYX is, conceptually speaking, his boatman's call, two 13 minute sides of Greek mythology-referencing purgatorial guitar murk, one half on terrafirma, the other floating down the river of the damned... If you remember those first two records on Low Company, or even the pair of records he made under the Itchy Bugger moniker, then you'll already be well acquainted with the openly sardonic, narco chimes of STYX. The fidelity remains of the characteristically 'submerged' variety, which at this point is as much of an instrument as anything actually played. It's a bit post-39 Clocks in that sense, kinda like the Coccon or Exit Out, the hazy gloom a lot of the appeal. "You're definitely doing the hype thing", he sings on Hype On. Are you talking to me, Bobby? Cos i've done a number on you here." - World Of Echo Music