Since Bill Ryder-Jones left the Coral in 2008 after five Top 10 albums, he’s been quietly busying himself away in his Yawn studio in West Kirby on the Wirral Peninsula. He’s produced records for the likes of Saint Saviour, Brooke Bentham and Michael Head (his 2022 masterpiece, Dear Scott) while his succession of Yawn-created solo albums has mapped out a singular musical vision. This has stretched from orchestral imaginary soundtracks (2011 debut If…); fragile, damaged folk-rock (2013’s A Bad Wind Blows in My Heart); angular, soul-baring rockers (2015’s West Kirby County Primary); and emotionally wracked slowcore and bleak wit on 2018’s Yawn, later reimagined as the acoustic Yawny Yawn. Now, Iechyd Da (Welsh for “good health”) throws more into the mix with his burgeoning production skills. There’s an eerie sample of Brazilian singer Gal Costa’s 1969 single, Baby; disco-inspired orchestrations; a children’s choir and even Head reading from James Joyce’s Ulysses (on the otherwise instrumental …And the Sea…). Further fuel to Ryder-Jones’s considerable creative blaze has been added by a five-year gap, the pandemic, a romantic split during lockdown and the 40-year-old’s ongoing battles with his mental health.
