Charl Ry – The Obscure Toil Dance

Charl Ry – The Obscure Toil Dance – Album Review

Man.  I felt SEEN when I was listening to the opening track on The Obscure Toil Dance by Charl Ry.  As “Flicks” started up and the dude was busy lamenting picking the wrong movie for all the wrong reasons, I couldn’t help but feel like I’m at that stage of predictable repetition in so much of what I do as well.  Have I become “one of those flicks?”  Have we all?  It’s not uncommon to feel like we’re stuck in a rut at times.  I am old and moldy and I haven’t flexed an exciting creative muscle in years, at least in my opinion…but maybe I’m going way too deep by internalizing this one.  I mean, it’s clearly about a film…a bad film…one of them movies that when it finally gets to the end you simply shut off the television or walk outta the theatre fully unfulfilled.  I happen to know enough about Charl Ry and his lady behind the scenes to know how tough it would be to satisfy both of their personal tastes at the same time…they seem to find a pleasant middle ground that has worked for them for years, but the flipside of that coin is that when left to their own devices and choices, it sounds like they both tend to watch different things.  “Flicks” isn’t just about the dissatisfaction of choosing a shitty movie to watch – it’s about the HORROR of convincing someone else to have watched that bunk-ass film along with you when you were sure it was gonna be good.  Next thing you know, it’s turned you into a modern-day Karen looking desperately for the manager to see if you can convince them that you should get your money back.  I don’t know if that’s quite the route we should take…I don’t know that we can management accountable, they’re just workin’ their 9-5…but should we be able to SUE THE ASSES OFF OF THE MARKETING DEPARTMENT?  Yes.  In any event, we ain’t livin’ in that world, so we watch these terrible “Flicks” every once in a while as we choke on our popcorn, and pretend we might have maybe enjoyed a little piece of it somewhere along the way.  You see?  Maybe I wasn’t so far off after all!  Maybe “Flicks” IS a brutal metaphor for life itself.

I ended up with a soft spot for “Green” after I was initially not as sure about it.  It didn’t take me long to come around.  At first, I wasn’t sure it was quite enough…or if there was enough excitement being generated at the start of this record for the rest of y’all out there…but ultimately, I don’t think The Obscure Toil Dance is trying to be one of those albums.  This is a sit-and-find-your-quiet-space-away-from-everyone-else-and-listen type of records…you know the ones.  We’ve all got a few that we keep safely in our back pocket, waiting for the right time to listen to’em…nothing wrong with that.  You’ll know when you want to reach for The Obscure Toil Dance.  Someone check on Charl Ry though – he was watching a crappy film on “Flicks,” and on “Green” he’s lamenting how money doesn’t grow on trees.  His happier observational style seems a lot more grounded in reality on this record, making it a kind of concept record in its own objective way.  I dig what he’s got goin’ on here though…the guitar work is great, the production is stellar, and the main vocal hook is really what brought me onboard here.  When I wasn’t entirely sure about it on that initial spin through the record, I knew full well that I wouldn’t be able to leave that melodic vocal hook and the harmonies that come with it behind…and I’m glad I didn’t.  While I’m sure there’s an argument that can be made that a lot of the rest surrounding it is fairly normal, or something you’d expect to hear from Charl Ry’s music, it’s the chorus that gives this song a genuinely standout moment of uniqueness that’ll keep you coming back to it until you love & appreciate the whole damn thing.  Funny how music can work like that, but repetition and exposure play a massive role in how we listen to it; the more we get, the more we get into it.  “Green” is a special tune & I should have heard it from that perspective from the very get-go, that’s what I’m saying.  It’s a rare moment where I’m basically admitting that I’m human…you won’t find me doing that often, so enjoy it folks.  “Green” has all the stuff you love from the guy though…intricate guitar, clever wordplay…and like everything you’ve heard from the dude to-date, it’s all well-played in a focused performance.  I came all the way around to the point where I now believe he got the absolute maximum potential outta this one.

Some really excellent melodic progressions and ideas to be found in “Leech.”  Do I get what this song is all about?  No…I don’t think I was able to quite follow him down the rabbit hole on this one…at least not entirely.  Are we supposed to get what every song is about?  Has that ever been the case with any artist or band?  I think the answer is an obvious no…so I don’t sweat it when I don’t fully grasp a concept or how every line would connect to it.  Plus, when you’ve got a mind that is as proven to be as aloof as this dude’s is…like…c’mon…how are we supposed to keep up to him at all times?  All-in-all, it sounds like he’s working with the title as the main building block…I’m just not entirely sure how.  We’re all leeches of some sort, aren’t we?  Whether we’re doing it intentionally or not, I think we can have some debate on that…but overall, we’re a parasitic species that is designed to devour all good things without care or consideration for what we destroy in the process.  So whether it’s the environment around us, or the latest new drink or desert that’s caught on in someone’s viral trend, we consume, consume, consume until we’re gorged, fat, and happy…at least for the moment.  We even leech leeching now…so don’t go thinking satisfaction exists in such a rapidly moving society, because it don’t.  Anyhow.  I’m off on a tangent here.  There’s something technological at the core of this song that Charl Ry’s getting at…it might be as simple as leeching internet service or stealing a streaming service of some kind…he refers to a secret USB of some kind…but like, yeah…I have no idea what that’d be used for.  Talk about leeches, I’ve been the ultimate pirate for years…I pay for independent albums at Bandcamp and buy T-shirts at concerts – other than that, I haven’t paid for media content of any kind in years.  So if there’s a magic USB stick that we can use to thwart THE MAN and his evil ways of doing business, then I’m all for it.  As to why Charl Ry is keeping it quiet…I do not know.  Use that shit if you got it!  I do think it’s interesting to think about the things we haven’t been able to “Leech,” at least so far as we know.  There’s that singular copy of the secret Wu Tang album.  That movie Malkovich made that won’t be shown until after we’re dead.  That song from Dolly Parton that’s not going to be released until 2046, twenty years from now.  “Business is business and your secret is safe,” as they say…or as he says…either way, we have to assume it to be true until proven otherwise.  That being said, there’s always a leak somewhere or a crack in the chain of custody…there’s always a secret USB that contains the information that we want, somewhere.

I get weird with words sometimes, like many of us do.  We hear these strange things that don’t quite make as much sense to our ears as the rest of what spills out of our face holes does.  Like, “Hullabaloo” for example…I don’t know that I love that word…which of course, makes this next song a little bit more problematic in trying to love it, given that “Hullabaloo” is what it’s called.  If you don’t catch the same kind of feelings over words that I do, then there shouldn’t be much stopping you from liking this song.  It’s entirely consistent with the rest of the record with its simple acoustic recipe, and while the moves he makes with his vocals gives it a slight difference from the rest of the lineup, Charl Ry has been very careful to keep this record in the gear it originally started in more or less, which ain’t a bad call to make in a seven song set.  He’s got something interesting added in here beyond the vocals and acoustic…maybe a synth sound of some kind, I’m not entirely sure really…whatever it is though, is really the perfect addition in my opinion.  Basically, I like or love everything about “Hullabaloo” other than the word “Hullabaloo” itself…so like…that’s not bad, right?  I’m not a big fan of rigmarole, poppycock, or gobbledygook either, if anyone out there is keeping track of the words I don’t love.  Don’t get me wrong, there’s value in using words that stand out in terms of uniqueness & such, but at the same time it’s like one of those things that snaps your suspension of disbelief too…you hear less commonly used words like they’re being sung in BOLD TYPE, because it doesn’t sound as natural – make sense?  Now…I have it on good authority that Charl Ry comes from somewhere down south…so maybe “Hullabaloo” is used more frequently there, I do not know.  Lollygag…I don’t love that word either.  I should be careful…I might be giving him future ideas for other songs.  Look…I said what I said – even WITH the word “Hullabaloo” as this cut’s centerpiece, I still think there’s a good chance that this is my favorite track in the lineup so far.  That’s largely due to the way he’s got the music insightfully bending the melody around him as he sings it…it gives “Hullabaloo” an intriguing and interesting vibe that pulls us in to listen to it.  I’d appreciate it if Charl Ry would consult me about his word selection prior to releasing a record, but alas, here we are.

On a compositional level alone, “Scream” is well worth checking out.  As I’m sure I’ve mentioned in the past somewhere in the thousands of reviews I’ve written on this guy’s music, his guitar work is massively underrated…it’s a crucial element of what makes his songs sound so damn good.  The Obscure Toil Dance gives us a clearer glimpse at the roots of it all in that respect, even if it’s probably just as fair to say that he’s likely using a more simplified approach for the skills that he possesses.  Does that lead to the kind of accessibility he’s looking for?  I mean…it’s honestly hard to say.  Think of it this way…simple doesn’t necessarily have to be slow or sleepy…it doesn’t have to be downtrodden or sad…so while the DNA of these tunes could have been the blueprint to a more accessible record, Charl Ry has still found a way of his own to eschew convention and do his own thing.  Even “Scream” is another solid example of how he’ll turn left when it would just be easier to go right – like…he’s not screaming in “Hullabaloo,” but he’s using a more aggressive voice than he does in the more hushed tones of “Scream” where you might have expected to hear the guy get a bit more intense than he does.  So then you have to go back to the lyrics and try to figure out WHY that would be, because listening to music is WORK and don’t let anyone try to convince you otherwise.  In that respect, we’d have to assume that “Scream” is actually about holding it in just as much as letting it out, you feel me?  I’d wager a guess that it’s probably a comment on how normalized everything that’s crumbling around us has become, and how you kind of need a safe space to really let out how you feel when it seems like no one else is doing that out loud right now.  The thing is, we’ve all done that…we’re all yelling and screaming into the void as individuals in behind the scenes when it needs to be done right out in the open.  So in answer to his question, “where do I go to scream,” I’d say right where you are, ten toes down, standing on business, loud & motherfuckin’ proud.  Other than that…not too many notes from me here…”Scream” is good tune in a lineup of good songs.

I do think there’s something to “Hullabaloo” being the cut I responded to most favorably (despite its mortifying title)…because again, if it’s accessibility we’re looking for, or finding that magic mix between substance and style that equates to listening ears, chances are it’s the track that hovers around the three and a half-minute mark that’s going to win the war.  With a more simplified approach, it can be harder to fully justify the length of songs when they stretch beyond the five minute mark, or argue that they couldn’t be tightened up in some way structurally I suppose…maybe that’s just how I see it.  I mean, I’ve got no problem letting a song develop and unfold like a good story does with its details and such, but I’m not everyone…you follow me?  I like the bold definition in the way that he plays “Don’t,” but I felt like I was more on the fence about this track than the rest of the set surrounding it.  It’s a tough one to examine…like, they all kind of are in a way.  Charl Ry has made an awesome effort to make sure every moment is played to the best it can be, and the recording itself sounds fantastic…so from there, it’s merely a matter of what appeals to your own personal taste.  I know I could listen to the dude noodle around on his guitar all day long, but that seemed to be where this track started & stopped for me…I don’t know that the vocals or lyrics added quite enough of a substantial dimension to “Don’t.”  Anytime I tend to feel like that is usually the result of me just not getting a concept or what someone is trying to say in their song though, so to be clear, I don’t put that on Charl Ry so much as I’d put it on my own damn self and my dumbass lack of understanding.  Jeremy ‘Jethro’ Tull I am…, as in, thick as a brick.

Quality-wise, he’s done an exceptional job on how the whole album sounds in the recording and production, which is awesome when you consider the fact this guy Charl Ry does everything totally DIY.  Do I think this lineup of songs is more frontloaded than evenly spread out in its strengths?  Yes!  Yes I do.  But that’s 100% an assessment from my own perspective, and I don’t think that would be completely universal.  It’s probably fairer to say the album kind of has its own split personality of sorts, where you might very well respond to one half of it more than the other depending on the kind of mood that you’re in.  Like, I like “Sport” and obviously I love the way the finale works with the instrumentation you’ll find from the main star of the show there…but do I dig it all as much as “Flicks,” “Green,” “Leech” or “Hullabaloo?”  Not sure I can say that…at least not today.  Ask me tomorrow and maybe it’ll be the latter half of the lineup I like more…like I said, it could be mood dependent.  I’ll tell you this much about “Sport” though – it sure sounds like it’d be fun to play and jam on…as a creator, I feel like I totally get where Charl Ry is coming from in wanting to stick with this tune as he wrote it.  A little similar to how I felt about the vocals of “Don’t” in the way that the music seems to have more to say than the lyrics do, it was the instrumental moments of “Sport” that seemed to make the biggest impact on me as I listened.  Performance-wise, I dig what I’ve heard from the guy all the way through though, so don’t get that twisted…in many ways, he’s had one of his better turns on the microphone in this lineup of songs.  I don’t know that he’s always found the most gripping parts for himself vocally, but that’s a different form of measurement and way to look at a tune.  He might feel entirely different about that, and hell, as long as he’s having fun singing to his music and whatnot, who would any of us be to judge?  Most notably, he’s really found impressive ways to do his harmonies and layer his vocals, which is probably my favorite aspect of listening to “Sport” beyond the dedicated instrumental spots, not so much for the part itself, but how the part sounds.  Each record this guy puts out contains another piece of the puzzle to his evolution as an artist, and The Obscure Toil Dance continues that tradition whether he likes it or not.  One of these days, he’ll put’em all together and it’ll show you the clearest picture of what I’ve known all along – Charl Ry is a man born not to simply make music, but to entertain you in ways that others can’t.

Find more music by Charl Ry at Apple Music here:  https://music.apple.com/us/artist/charl-ry/1848217363

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