Matthew Ryan, one of our favorite artists, is releasing a new album called Hustle Up Starlings. And a new video features the album’s first single, “(I Just Died) Like an Aviator.”
Ryan tells Diffuser that the songs are about “hope and perseverance.” The songs try to capture the spirit of our national moment of being in “a world that feels like it might catch fire with all its uncertainty and friction, the ugly politics and rising impulses.”
Popdust calls the 10-track album Ryan’s “most poetic, gnawing and adventurous album of this career.” And Ryan writes of the album: “We invested all the heart, smarts and honest cinema we were capable of. I feel strongly these songs will become great companions.”
To highlight the “perseverance” aspect of “(I Just Died) Like an Aviator,” Ryan chose to have young women projecting his voice in the video. It’s a powerful statement in “our post-Trump world.” But it also is a lot of fun.
Check out “(I Just Died) Like an Aviator,” where the singer pleads, “Don’t die, don’t disappear/ I swear to God we need you/ here.”
Ryan’s last full-length album was 2014’s Boxers, although he released an 8-track instrumental digital album, Current Events, in Fall 2016. Hustle Up Starlings, which was produced by The Gaslight Anthem’s Brian Fallon, hits the Internet and stores on May 12, 2017.
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