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Ronan Conroy – The Slow Death of the LoveMyth

By RingMaster Review on December 10, 2022 • ( 0 )

Released a handful of weeks or so ago, The Slow Death of the LoveMyth is the new album from musician/songwriter RONAN CONROY. It is a release seeing the NYC-based Dubliner explore the seductive shadows of dark pop with a breath inspired by 80s/90s goth and artists as well as one embracing the haunting prowess of guest vocalists for its ethereal explorations. It all makes for an encounter that instantly captivated ears and provoked the imagination.

Having grown up in a musical family, Conroy soon found himself enjoying the exploration of a wide range of flavours; the creative adventure within everything from new wave and post-punk to DAVID BOWIE, JOHNNY CASH, ELVIS and ABBA inspiring his own subsequent creativity and songwriting. Playing in bands such as THE LISTENERS and OH HALO only added to his experience and growth as a songwriter and a solo career now unveiling its finest moment yet within The Slow Death of the LoveMyth.

Produced by Charlie Nieland (Debbie Harry, Rufus Wainwright, Blondie, Scissor Sisters) who also adds his multi-instrumentalist prowess across the record alongside drummer Justin Wierbonski (a.k.a. Demonic Sweaters), The Slow Death of the LoveMyth provides a realm of gothic and dreamwave nurtured enterprise with post punk and dark rock essences similarly exposed in its imagination across nine ethereally yet intensely and corporally earthy tracks.

It opens up with Double Helix which sees Julie Dicterow of OH HALO soaring across the eventful rhythmic and sonic landscape of the track with gossamer-esque grace and emotive power. From its first breath, rhythms coaxed the fullest attention, with the warm yet tenebrific tone of the Conroy’s guitars an evocative jangle within the invasively but welcome thick smog of keys. Wonderfully claustrophobic in atmosphere and clamorous in air around Dicterow’s beauty, the track proved swiftly irresistible and a powerfully rousing start to the record.

The Nightland follows with its own eventful rhythmic enticing and the flowing winds of intimation loaded synths. It too is has a senses confining nature to its air and a sense of thick tension to its shadows, even with the light of keys and harmonic radiance of LA-based vocalist Shannon Brown but it aligns it all for a compelling and intimately lit proposal which This Dream embraces for its own fusion of post punk pessimism and dreamwave endowed fire. Conroy takes vocal lead on the track; that influence of personal experience on every breath shared and further coloured by the rich vines and patterns of guitar and suggestive veils woven by keys. As with its predecessors, the song is open in but not soaked in that eighties influence, the track at times recalling the pop seduction of CHINA CRISIS and the dark tension of a THE DANSE SOCIETY within its uniqueness.

Dark drama reeks across Born in Conflict from its very first touch, again rhythms the vehicle for suspense and curiosity even before melodic angst and emotive anxiety are shared by guitars and voice. Haunting in every aspect, with again Conroy a narrative of emotion and adventure in voice as are the sounds around him, the song almost menacingly prowled as it creatively seduced before Lovemyth laid a warm hand on the shoulder and tensions with its angular jangle and the mesmeric tones of LUSTERLIT’S Susan Hwang.

Captivation barely covers the track’s hold or that of Passenger with Shannon Brown returning to light up its shadows but equally add to the song’s calm but lively incitement. It is a deceitful proposition too, its gentle touch and warm glow wrapping an almost tempestuous heart and resourcefulness which simmers and sizzles, rising more openly in the breaths the ear grabbing song takes.

Dark Paradise concludes the album, the track a cover of the LANA DEL REY classic but an interpretation re-imagined by Conroy to conjure its post punk/dark wave opportunities and depths as he draws out fresh shadows and dilemmas from within. In many ways that has accentuated the song’s instinctive infectiousness with Conroy’s tones doing the same to its emotive contemplation leading to a chorus which is pure galvanic incitement, an outpouring of one’s own emotion and experiences openly joining those of the song.

Fair to say that The Slow Death of the LoveMyth enthralled from start to finish with moments of the richest encouragement of the deepest involvement; an album we can only loudly recommend.

The Slow Death of the LoveMyth is out now: available @ https://ronanconroy.bandcamp.com/album/the-slow-death-of-the-lovemyth