"Before anything can start over,
something that's been has to
end.
I'm ready to be a beginner,
that's why I love winter."
(Winter / Fred Wilhelm, Luke Sheets, Ryan Kinder)
If you are not (yet) a fan and are not on social media like TikTok, then you will unfortunately not have noticed that Ryan Kinder has released his second studio album on December 6, 2024. It is the successor to "Room to Dream" from 2021 and is again independently produced.
"Heirloom" contains 13 songs. Ryan Kinder was involved in writing 12 of them. They are stories about emotions. Emotions that at first glance have to do with relationship themes, but at second glance can also be applied to other topics in life. Feelings that make us humans sensitive and sometimes thoughtful beings.
Or as the press release puts it: "A collection of songs that feel both personal and timeless, resonating with themes of loss, healing, and familial connections."
Supported by producer and co-writer Luke Sheets, Ryan Kinder has not only put his unmistakeable voice on the project, but with its changes in tempo and a contemporary, but not overloaded production, the result proves to be anything but boring.
Although the first word in the first song title seems to suggest loss ['Lost On You'], it is nothing more than a little play on words that cannot take away any of the positive lightheartedness of this catchy tune about summer love.
The much deeper 'What If I' conveys an actual loss in the midst of a chaos of emotions. Released back in 2023, it tries to ask the right questions in search of the reason for a broken relationship. It is precisely these what-if questions about oneself and the things one has done or neglected to do in life. Not without drama, Ryan Kinder makes the song a very special highlight of the project.
What if I wasn't scared?
What if I wasn't hopeless, coping, always in repair?
What if I never let go?
Maybe you just needed time?
What if I said I'm sorry for the things I never did right,
what if I ... ?
The mid-tempo 'Sometimes It Don't' describes an on-off relationship in which the two don't know if they really want to leave. It's the spontaneous egoism that we often resort to in life to justify our decisions. Written by Jordan Schmidt, Josh Osborne and Hardy, it is the only song on the album that Ryan Kinder is not involved in as a songwriter.
Sometimes I'm leaving really means goodbye.
Sometimes a 2 AM call that wakes you up
really was a drunk pocket dial.
Sometimes the bed is really just colder,
and never again really means that we want.
Sometimes it's over means it's really over.
Yeah, but sometimes it don't.
The urgent message of 'Leavin' Kind' stands in stark contrast to its driving sonics. For Ryan Kinder insists that he will stay, no matter what. Unfortunately, the track is not even 3 minutes long.
sky's gon' fall and the moneys run dry.
Levee gon' break.
Just hold on tight,
'cause I be right here by your side.
Who hasn't experienced spontaneous memories hearing a song? You feel like you're back in that moment or you remember a person who is connected to it. This feeling, with its slight melancholy, describes 'Talking 'Bout You'.
just like that summer again.
Got your lips pressing up against mine and I'm
feeling like we just might make it last forever!
Why's it gotta feel like every song that comes on
is talking 'bout you?
While 'Next Best Thing' doesn't quite dare to use the big word love (if this ain't love, something's telling me, we got the next best thing), the sensitive ballad 'Good Again' seems to have lost all hope that things will ever be good again.
The support of family is described in 'Family Tree', while 'Bad Things' is about the lure of forbidden things that sometimes give life its spice.
There is no way back in 'Cruel' when the protagonist insists:
Just remember you left me for someone new.
I ain't the b-side of the record that you're playin'.
Now you're knocking on my door,
but you can't blame me if I put on my stone-cold over-you face.
I don't mean to be cruel, but I learned it all from you.
(Cruel / Ken Presse, Luke Sheets, Ryan Kinder)
The haunting piano ballad 'Save Me Now' was written at a songwriting camp in Oslo and deals with the search for
meaning in life that we should all face at some point.
tryna find the meaning, and a place to belong.
Happiness is a dream,
but I can't fall asleep.
(Save Me Now / Ronny Jensen, Ryan Kinder, Tines)
"The end of my favorite albums always tied everything up in a warm sonic hug," says Ryan Kinder on threads.com about the last song on the album. "Hope we did it with this one and Winter." It's a song about the hopeful transition from the old to the new, just as winter turns the old year into a new one.
In the Back Porch Sippin' podcast on September 4, 2024, Ryan Kinder describes his music as soul country. But in the end, it's not so much about labels that matters, but rather the realization that "Heirloom" is quite possibly the best album of 2024 that you've heard the least of.
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