Inside – Byorn Gold (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

I have always praised Byorn Gold‘s approach to releasing music. Dividing his long-players into three EPs and releasing them as a staggered series before dropping the album as a whole ensures a number of things. It ensures his music remains in the public consciousness over time. It means that the music comes at us in bite-sized pieces, four tracks, to be easily absorbed and understood. And it means that by the time the full collection of music drops, we are already familiar with the sound and then gain a fuller understanding of the whole project in a broader context.

Carrying on from Borderlines (Stories part 1), this is another collection inspired by film, books, and historical events. Inside is the vehicle for the first four tracks of the album to come, Inside, Above and Beyond.

“Who’s Coming To See Me” kicks things off with a bang, rock-and-roll-infused but built with deft dynamics, it blends raw guitar groove with spaciousness, solid riffs with chiming piano, urgency with artistry—all the hallmarks of a Gold-standard song. As the title of this first installment suggests, Inside explores aspects of our inner selves, and the fact that this is part of the Stories collection suggests that these are not autobiographical but the result of inspirations found out there in the wider world. In this case, the catalyst was a conversation in which a friend undergoing chemotherapy described the feeling of an array of voices in their head, something we can all relate to as the various parts of our own personality attempt to guide, dominate, and even sabotage our thoughts.

The sonic mood changes with “What Will We Do,” into a late-night jazz feeling, a gentle piano-led piece, balladic and achingly beautiful, beats tick and bars seduce. The film, Gone Girl, provides the launch point for the song. Despite its oft-sensual, seductive nature, especially once it becomes sax-soaked and soaring, this blend of anthemics, emotion, grace, and darker atmosphere is the perfect musical representation of the tension inside that manipulative relationship at the heart of the film.

There is something of the old world, the ancient world even, about “Facing the Gaelic Devil.” It lilts along like a voice from the Celtic fringe, a blend of accessible commerciality and raw expression, rock dexterity channeling folk finesse, a song echoing timeless folkloric storytelling gradually evolving into a smoother, instrumental playout, as if moving from the wild West Coast of the Emerald Isle’s Atlantic shores to the calmer Pacific Coast of a serene California beach. And the music reflects the lyrics’ message of transition: through hardship, we find wisdom; from difficulties, we find understanding.

Most people who reference Tolkien would choose to write songs about epic quests and mythical beasts, and to find analogous links between such grand fantasy and the evils of the modern world. Gold instead takes his message from the film biography of the man himself and the line, “Become What Only You Can,” which the song takes as its title. Again, balancing a more rock and roll sound with smoother interludes, rising pre-choruses evolve into big choruses and are balanced by more sedate verses; a song built on a strong dynamic, ebbing and flowing between understament and sonic crescendo to deliver the idea that it is pointless trying to emulate others, and that you are the only person equiped to be you, so be the best version that you can be.

With the first chapter of this new album, we find ourselves in a world where inspiration is all around us, where the music is not only accessible and eclectic, but also gives you cause to pause and reflect, long after the song has faded out. This is the world of the storyteller, the tradition of the troubadour, and the sound of modern media rendered into timeless song. This is the world of Byorn Gold.