Troyer, Aaron

***"Please don’t call Aaron Troyer a 'journeyman.' His songwriting does seem to exist in a sort of static transience and his catalog is quite prolific, but instead of harping on his own autobiography, he seems to inhabit an imagined world of characters who have their own collection of memories and reflections—especially on his latest opus, Shatter the Fantasy, the seventh album under his own name. Like his visual art, the songs on Shatter the Fantasy project as stained-glass abstractions, slightly dusted, full of colors that seem muted but tend to peek through when appropriate. Of course it would be false to say that the album is a departure. You can still hear the sharp punk angles and prickly pop that defined his last fifteen years of work, either in his first band, Day Creeper, or on my personal favorite of Troyer’s solo triumphs, 2016’s Faith in the Unknown. After moving to Austin in 2020, Troyer was driven to make a full-band effort and enlisted Caleb Harmon to play drums and Matthew Collechi to play bass. Not long after, Dusty White (a Columbus wizard and friend of Troyer) grabbed a second guitar and brought his infinite gear wisdom to the band and into the studio to complement this batch of songs, along with Collechi, an experienced engineer in his own right. Though the quartet only played one solitary show together, the dynamism that was tracked on Shatter the Fantasy is nothing short of prismatic, worn and weathered in the best way possible, an old friend returning to town to sit and tell stories around a never-ending campfire. There are countless moments on Shatter the Fantasy when Troyer’s songwriting 'feels alive.' The woozy, weepy, phased-out cowboy ballad, 'Carousel,' certainly 'basks in the afterglow.' The quick and rambling 'Citizen Protector,' tackles Rumours and outlaw country with equal aplomb. White sneaks in some big dumb classic rock tricks—like the Mutt Lange-esque, Def Leppard, one-note arpeggios shimmering in the verses of the triumphant 'Letdown' but it works. Always inherent in Troyer’s songs is a little Feelies jangle, some Dylan bramble, a Stonesy swagger, pins and needles quirk that recalls the Soft Boys—yet in this bespoke outfit of twang (I couldn’t imagine Troyer in a Nudie suit) and Southern charm, he’s making a statement. Just listen to that yearning solo that ends 'Discount Trip to Heaven.' 'Nuclear Vista' is a perfect sunrise-as-finale to a record that really shuffles under moonlight for most of its entirety. Large swaths of reverb scorch the sky, our hero, shielding his eyes from the blinding light, ending his journey atop a dune in the distant desert. The vista is nuclear but, damn if it isn’t beautiful to look at."—Kevin J. Elliott, August 28th, 2023 Pro-duplicated tapes. Limited to 100 copies.