Released on 27 Oct, this is the debut album from indie singer-songwriter Ryan Terrigno, former frontman of local Orange County rock bands Wester and We Are The Arsenal.
Alive & Well has been trailed by several singles this summer, and the final album of ten tracks has a smooth Californian feel while offering personal lyrics and powerful melodies.
Guest artists on the album include Brian Griffin (drummer with The Black Crowes), guitsrist Rich Hinman and Zac Clark (recently in Andrew McMahon In The Wilderness). It makes for a potent fusion of styles and musical energy.
The title track opens the album, a strong sing-along piece that you will find yourself smiling to. Tracks like Get Lost are faster and more decisive against the retrospection of Stare at the Sun or Saturday Morning Cartoons.
If I was to give a flavour of styles here, I am thinking James Taylor, James Blunt, Ed Sheeran, Daniel Bedingfield with a dash of good vibrations and frozen orange juice. Alive & Well has angst, romance, and the sense of a journey.
There are love songs like Whole Wide World that tell small stories in a 4-minute track.
This album often heads into nostalgia and reslience and will probably have strong appeal to millennial listeners who relate to the world around them in an insular way.
Terrigno is an interesting artist who taps into the feeling of being overwhelmed and lost (Quicksand being one example of this).
This isn’t an album that will make your heart sing, and if you have more life experience, you may have heard similar sentiments before, but this is a strong debut sitting between folk-rock and AOR.
For more on Ryan Terrigno and his work, visit his website, where you can listen to the four songs already released from the album.
***