Gordon Gano and the Ryans - Under The Sun

Gordon Gano and the Ryans. Photo / NZ Herald

Rating: * * * *

With the Violent Femmes effectively disbanded - multi-instrumentalist Brian Ritchie lives in Tasmania - singer Gordon Gano steps out under his own name with the Ryans (guitarist Billy and keyboardist/trumpeter Brendan) for an album which lacks a conspicuous breakout hit like the Femmes' Blister in the Sun but still scores with some sharp songs.

There's a slightly reflective, if not melancholy, mood at work across many of these 12 tracks ("Why did I wander, why did I roam?" he offers on the mop-pop Home) but in the closing overs there's a knees-up on Oholah Oholibahand Red.

The best here are the affecting, Cohen-like Here As a Guest; the dark, percussive and Talking Heads-influenced Wave and Water; the piano ballad Still Suddenly Here which changes musical course a number of times; the reflective title track and the relentless pop-rock of Man in the Sand which sounds as close as any of these songs might come to Femme-like crossover success.

Gano's distinctive and edgy voice carries this folk-pop'n'rock material and if they are sometimes musically lightweight (Hired Gun, the 50s pastiche Way That I Creep) or weighed down by their earnest lyrics, Gano is saying something worth hearing.

A slow grower.