Bill Ryder-Jones, Yawny Yawn - album review

At the end of last year he released Yawn - his fourth full-length - for public consumption. And he says: "I presume at some point I felt that the original had too much pep."

So he revisited each of the tracks and created this, Yawny Yawn - a beautifully intimate window into Bill's soul where he plays each song on just a piano with his deep, pooled voice almost mumbling over the top.

Everything about this is personal. The claustrophobic aesthetics make it seem like we are sat at the piano with Bill. The stripped back nature of the tracks lays his thoughts and dreams bare before us.

And the cover - that brilliantly humorous, candid snapshot of family life. It shows three-year-old Bill in the background playing his beloved keyboard while an elderly relative sips spilled tea or coffee from a saucer, seemingly oblivious the moment is being caught for posterity.

It's nice to see the material matches the outlook.

There's no filler here. Despite just being 10 tracks of one man and his piano, it captures the imagination and concentration in a way not even Tom Odell manages.

In earnest, it's the perfect record for when you are feeling blue. The slow, stumbling melody of And Then There's You could be played out while heavy rain slopes down your window pane, while the brooding John has Bill almost whispering over the top of his stop-start fingerwork.

Some of the stripped back material keeps that "pep" Bill mentioned through their hopefulness. Don't Be Scared, I Love You is one such number. The heartbreakingly beautiful build of this track from start to finish is wonderful and tugs at all the heart-strings, blood vessels, veins and anything else it can get its hands on in your body.

There's something positive, too, about Time Will Be The Only Saviour. Rising and falling keys sound like one of the milder tracks off an early Coldplay record.

This is great work and shows the creative thinking of Bill in revisiting and reworking his material. We excitedly await the third, acid house version of the record - Yawny McYawnface.

Rating: 8/10

Bill Ryder-Jones plays at The Crossing in Digbeth, Birmingham, on October 19