I saw Ryanhood a number of years ago while at college, when they had swung by for a set of music that has stuck with me for a couple years now. The pair have recently released their latest album, the long awaited The World Awaits that really highlights their sound and energy quite nicely, while demonstrating how far they've come from their older music.
Part of this can be heard between two versions of the song Born To Run To You, which appeared earlier on their album On The Radio, and now, with The World Awaits.
The earlier works felt very stripped down, almost amateurish, which is to be expected for a fairly new group who are touring colleges and coffee houses. It's not a bad sound but they were lost among a larger pool of similar artists.
The World Awaits shows that they've poked their head above the surface. This newer album feels far cleaner, refined and sophisticated over their older works. The differences between the song Born To Run To You is like night and day, and there are a bunch of other tracks that come with it that really make it stand out amongst artists such as Demsion Witmer and Matt Nathanson.
The two (Ryan Green and Cameron Hood) work extremely well together. While they're not at the level of Simon and Garfunkle, they sound fantastic, alternating sections of songs and continually supporting one another as they move through the song. It's hard to seperate them apart, and that grants songs their own qualities.
Their guitar work has jumped up a notch as well - The opening track, Around the Sun absolutely blew me away when I first listened to it, with the energy and excitement that was largely lacking from their earlier works. I really want to see these guys in concert again, four years on and feel that energy that they are exuding from my speakers.
Around the Sun - Ryanhood
