Album Review: Rich Ragany & The Digressions - "Beyond Nostalgia & Heartache"

 

Rich Ragany seems to be a guy with an undisputed knack for a catchy tune. He first came to our attention with the Role Models who after a prolonged spell as everyone's favourite glam/punk perennial support band reprobates burst on to the scene properly in fine style with their debut full album, 2015's The Go-To Guy, and would follow that up with two further excellent efforts in 2016's Forest Lawn and 2017's Dance Moves.

The group would go on hiatus in 2018 (although a reunion is being touted for later this year) with Rags putting a new band together, the Digressions, aided and abetted by Role Models drummer Simon Maxwell, ex-Glitterati/Dedwardians guitarist Michael "Gaff" Gaffney, ex-UK Subs/The Men They Couldn't Hang bassist Ricky McGuire and ex-Shush guitarist and all round production whizz Andy Brook on keys. 2019 would see them putting out a supremely confident debut album Like We'll Never Make It. One pandemic later and their sophomore effort Beyond Nostalgia & Heartache is now here and does what every good second album does, building on the best bits of the debut and adding a few new tricks to excellent effect.

As you'd expect from Rags, the main stock in trade here is gloriously sunny power-pop as evidenced by the two lead-off singles, the Johnny Thunders tribute Heartbreakers Don't Try and the edgy Marionette and there's plenty of other material along these lines such as the soaring opener Sometimes We Can Hear The Voices and the yearning It Was Lonely At The Time (complete with handclaps in the chorus) and Blackout Till Tuesday. And make no mistake, they're still bloody good at it as well.

But that's far from the whole story here - the title track is a gentle lilting almost waltz-like number while the lovely stripped-down Sleep goes into almost gospel-folk territory complete with an accordion. The bubbling frustration of The Man Who Couldn't Give It Away and the sinister Last Chance Dear show a darker side to Rags' songwriting while the trippy Strawberry Fields Forever style flutes on A Long Way To Yesterday and the almost doo-wop stylings of the gorgeous piano-led closer This Is How You Spell Tonight show that this is a band doing anything but standing still. Special mention has to be made here of guitarist Kit Swing who takes more of an up front vocal role on this effort than she did for the band's debut, similar to Patti Palladin and Johnny Thunders' collaborations on So Alone and Copycats, and whose vocals tally with Rags' almost perfectly here (listen to the gentle Fade In Blue for proof) really adding a new dimension to the sound.

Overall, this is a fantastic album and I'm pretty sure it'll be in our Top 10 at the end of the year. The sound of a band growing in confidence, adding new tricks to their repertoire and keeping the killer tunes and earworm choruses intact throughout, Beyond Nostalgia & Heartache is simply a must-have album. 

Bandcamp

NITE SONGS RATING: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑 (9/10)