It's not as though I have a particularly low threshold of boredom, and I'm no wild thrill-seeker. Similarly, I can handle music that's tranquil or calm, and am not averse to ambient works or soundscapes that melt into background: they have their place. But Kelley Ryan's gentle acoustic strumming isn't merely tranquil, it's downright tedious, to the extent that the first time I played it, I found that it had ended and I hadn't even noticed, so little attention had I paid it.
Realising that I had probably been distracted, possibly by some drying paint, I returned to 'Twist' a few days later, and on hearing the opener, 'About a Girl' - no, not a cover of the Nirvana track - I began to wonder if I had been mistaken, and had just not been in the right frame of mind to appreciate Kelley's subtle, gentle brand of folk-tinged acoustic pop. But then the same thing happened: my mind began to wander, and I realised that fifteen minutes had elapsed and nothing of the album had registered whatsoever.
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Usually, I'd attempt to pinpoint exactly what it is about an album that fails to ignite my enthusiasm, but after one of the longest forty-one minutes of my life, I'm yawning like Bagpuss, struggling to stay awake, and am left wondering how even the artist can find the motivation to commit such tedium to tape.
Kelly Ryan on MySpace
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