Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
With Love, an expression of truth that some may abuse, but for the majority doesn’t come easily, only to be used in moments when no other words suffice, that will capture the emotions and the sensations that true adoration dictates. It is a fondness framed at the end of a letter, a declaration of fealty, an allegiance to one’s country, with love comes hopeful respect; and it is too respect that Mitch Ryder unveils his latest album with a clear and untameable resolution, to admit that the result is a statement of intent for the listener, that in his words, it is “essential listening”.
When people show you who they are, believe them, for good or for ill, always believe the intention behind the effort, the determination, and the struggle; and whilst Mitch Ryder is rightly considered one of the absolute legends of his craft, it is an understanding of the human condition that he possesses that we must always see our labour as a commitment, we must never let it become shallow, to be surface only less the absolute highs feel somehow cheated out of love.
The calibre of the album is testament to the man and the musician, the songwriter digs deep into his soul as songs such as the etiquette of hedonism in Pass It To The Right, the honesty of personal addiction in One Monkey, Too Damned Slow, The Artist, and the finale of Just The Way It Is, the status of the imagery that is placed before the listener is one of perhaps absolution, of forgiveness in the self but admitting the damage that may have been unearthed.
The hero of the blue-collar ethic, Mitch Ryder’s influence has been in the blood, sweat, and exertion, and in With Love all those qualities and industry once again resurface, and that his words of essential listening are an exact proclamation, a truth in which to revel for the music’s authenticity and the soul of the author of his own destiny.
The inevitability of life is that those who hold love with honour are bound, tethered to unleashing their heart at some point with an exactness of certainty, and Mitch Ryder does so With Love.
Ian D. Hall