A few months back we featured Ardyn with their gloriously uplifting ‘Over The River‘ single, admittedly at the time of writing we wondered whether Ardyn would turn out to be another of those flash in the pan type acts who got lucky with a few chords but had little to offer beyond that solitary moment of magic. How wrong could we be…
Their follow up ‘The Valley’ had us at 0.41 with Katy Pearson’s hauntingly beautiful hum setting the tone for what is another deeply engaging and emotionally charged song. Like ‘Over The River’ you can palpably feel Pearson’s soul being intricately woven into the very fabric of the song as introspective melancholy meets quiet optimism. Like the cool clear air that follows a claustrophobic rainstorm, ‘The Valley’ is a refreshingly welcome parting of the clouds, yet despite this sense of growing anticipation there’s still a British Spring like nip in the air as it alludes to warmer times ahead…
Overall, on the strength of these two releases alone, you’d have to say Ardyn are destined for a bright future, especially when you consider ‘The Valley’ also has it’s own ‘Vevo’ endorsed video. Having said that there is a potential pitfall on the horizon, a hole that many of these introspective type bands tend to topple into, and that is becoming one paced and predictable. All too often a promising start ends in an LP that lacks the enthralling dynamism you were hoping for, with track 5/6 often being the point when you realise you’re not even listening anymore. Hopefully this will not be the case with Ardyn and perhaps like the pioneering ‘Kate Bush’, ‘Bon Iver’ or even ‘The War On Drugs’, Ardyn will be able to vary their pace and sentiment and produce a truly memorable first chapter…we hope so.