ALBERTA MUSICIAN RYLAND MORANZ SHARES BRAND NEW ALBUM, BETTER/WORSE
Alberta musician Ryland Moranz shares his new album Better/Worse out now on all digital streaming platforms via Tonic Records. Ryland is also featuring ‘A New Civil War’ as the third single/video from the album, following previous singles ‘When I’m Gone‘ and ‘The Hell Of This Town‘.
‘A New Civil War’ arrives as a timely and poignant commentary on the cultural polarization and hostility that has taken root in our current society. Known for his ability to blend folk, bluegrass, and Americana with deep personal reflection, Ryland uses this song to address a broader societal crisis: the divisive nature of reactionism and the consequences of rejecting those who disagree.
“‘A New Civil War’ is a protest to reactionism and a reflection on the consequences of uninhibited othering,” says Ryland. “While conflict is inherent to the entropy of the cosmos, we have entered a cultural era of oppositional fetishism. The desire isn’t simply to be right, but to prove those who disagree devastatingly wrong and foolish. Where do we go from here if none of us can let the other off the hook? And when did we choose to live like this? I wanted to write something that expressed a third alternative to right and wrong. To hope to be right and practice being wrong.”Â
Recorded by John Raham at Barnhouse Studios in Qualicum, BC, and produced by Ryland and Leeroy Stagger, Better/Worse, takes an earnest snapshot of a world emerging from the brink, or rather, from one brink to another. A spiritual successor to Ryland’s acclaimed 2021 offering XO, 1945, Better/Worse turns the focus from where we have been to where we may be going.
Says Ryland:
“This album is a mixture of the universal and the deeply personal. The idea that everything is simultaneously better and worse for the people in it has become a common ponderance of mine in the years since our collective forced vacation. Better/Worse is my attempt at focusing a lens less on the contrast between the two and more on the collective commonality of the paired, symbiotic conditions. During the writing of the album, I was nearing a breakthrough in my mental health, with which I’ve frequently struggled and continue still to do so. The result is my most hopeful answer to a world in search of the shared responsibility of existence.” Â