The Reytons — The Ballad of a Bystander: Lightning-In-A-Bottle Energy is Starting to Fade
For better or worse, The Reytons are one of the most interesting indie bands to come under the spotlight in recent years. Diehard fans of the Rotherham outlet would tell you their music is lightning-in-a-bottle, while outsiders remain convinced that they aren’t anything more than an early Arctic Monkeys tribute band. Granted, there is a gap in the indie scene for that early noughties garage-rock sound with Alex Turner and co consistently reinventing themselves, but the belief in The Reytons being the ones to blow the dust off that forgotten sound is starting to fade.
Unfortunately, The Reyton’s attempt to capture the youthful energy once seen in years gone by does leave something left for the imagination. Their previous album, ‘What’s Rock & Roll?’ does little in offering an answer to the titular question, with drab instrumentals and lyrics that were eventually laughed at on social media: “She gets her tits out for ten pounds a month…” That being said, the four-piece band are well within their right to repeat their mantra of, ‘No label, no backing, all Reytons’. Getting to the level of listeners they have (‘On The Back Burner’ has almost 30 million streams on Spotify) without any help is commendable, and indicative that they must be doing something right. Right?
Arriving only a year after their number 1 album comes ‘The Ballad of a Bystander’, an LP attempting to sell itself with its passion crafted by its creators. However, as the songs roll by it becomes clear that things aren’t changing much anytime soon for The Reytons.
In fairness, many songs present on ‘The Ballad of a Bystander’ seem to attempt to step away from their previous ‘Favourite Worst Nightmare’ inspirations, such as the album opener, ‘Adrenaline’. The track is one of the most sonically expansive tunes the band have ever made, featuring a terrific bass line and moody guitar leads that linger in the background. Any sort of musical subtlety, unfortunately, goes out the window during the chorus, with Yerrell’s performance bordering on irritating.
The single, ‘Market Street’ also features a more polished instrumental than seen previously on their power chord blitzes. It speaks to nostalgia from teenage years and first loves, “I remember when you used to call my name/We had two flat tires and no spare change”. However, it will have a tough time of swaying any Reytons sceptics, remaining inoffensive and uninspiring in its instrumentation. ‘Nineteen Crimes’ whilst having a potentially cringe-worthy music video has a better tune to it, with their guitarists for once altering away from the standard settings on their amp and discovering the reverb pedal for a short bridge. The chorus is enjoyable too, with lead singer Johnny Yerrell putting his all into the vocals.
If the band members are particularly inventive with their instruments of choice, they unfortunately aren’t showing it often here. Both rhythm and lead guitarists fail to take command with the majority of the runtime, instead choosing to dip into their very small bag of chords and licks to come up with the same tricks over and over again. ‘Listen’ is another single played at the same pace as the others, with lyrics covering the mental health struggles of a teenage girl. It falls flat in its songwriting though despite exploring a poignant theme, never delving deeper than what is necessary to provoke any feeling of vulnerability in Yerrell’s performance. Meanwhile, album cuts such as ‘World’s Greatest Actor’ and ‘Seven in Search of Ten’ lack any sort of punch to make a full play-through any memorable.
As The Reyton’s third album comes to a close it’s hard to see how far the band have come since the release of their first EP back in 2017. Sure, they’ve gathered half a million regular listeners on Spotify and have a number-one album under their belt, but their artistic progression is yet to be shown in the studio. ‘The Ballad of a Bystander’ is as passive as its title suggests; there aren’t any moments of introspective songwriting and the instrumentals often shy away from sinking their teeth into the themes of the tracks. They aren’t intimidating certain Sheffield rockers as much this time around, but their music remains just as shallow and easy to digest as before.
