It may only be 2014 since the Reigning Sound last released an album but still, ‘A Little More Time With’ did arrive in 2021 feeling like a reformation. Happily, unlike many bands who get it together again after a hiatus, this one returned strong and with barely a hint that they had ever been away. That can be attributed to the attitude which itself should be credited to main man Greg Cartwright. If ever there was a man with a healthy regard of success it is Greg. He remains singularly unphased by the trappings of acclaim and recognition, never losing sight of the thing that brought him to this place from the outset, the music. In the intervening years you were as likely to spot him around guitar and vinyl stores as you were a recording studio and typically, he did not countenance any return to record making until he hit a rich vein of songwriting. That is why this one stands out as an end-of-year highlight, it is because the songs are just so damn good.

One of the greatest things about pure Garage Rock is its simplicity. The uncomplicated directness of the music, the lack of fuss in lyrics that refuse to overcomplicate what they convey and the way Garage Rock never loses sight that its roots are in Pop music. Just look at the opening track here, a Greg Cartwright original ‘Let’s Do It Again’ wherein he eagerly anticipates the return of someone missed. Once they used to turn down the lights and play records all night and he knows they will be doing it again real soon. The music has a joyful bounce to it and you must assume there is a passing reference to the reformed Reigning Sound themselves and their collective enthusiasm for this new album. This is a mood that continues throughout an LP which features all, bar one, Greg Cartwright new compositions.

Of course, Garage Rock would not echo with so much lovelorn emotion if it did not feature a little heartbreak, something which appears immediately on track two ‘A Little More Time.’ The way the organ pattern swirls between a major and minor bedding before stabbing out a little peril when Greg goes for broke and lays bare the tragedy in the back of his mind, show what a musical maestro Cartwright has become in this song form. The album could never be an old boy’s footnote with songs like this to play. That said, even the cover of Chris Andrews ‘I Don’t Need That Kind Of Lovin’ kicks ass with its punky ‘Summertime Blues’ style riffing.

The pace eases for a moment of late-night spookiness on ‘I’ll Be Your Man.’ Is Greg dreaming as he sings about travelling between two points in space time, having set out by asking his driver to turn the car lights off at night and travel in the dark as the road disappears? It may not be as fantastical as that, maybe Greg is throwing all his cards in with this dark number as the refrain of “…and I’ll be your man…” repeats at the close? There are similar layers on ‘Oh Christine,’ far from a loving ode there is more overwhelming sadness on display. Greg is wrapping in blankets but still feeling the cold as he waits for separation tears to start flowing. The crying will start when he has stopped driving but for now the key detail is the “rind from your tangerine still sitting on my dash, speeding down the 1-15 counting cities as they pass. Oh Christine you are free at last.”

‘You Don’t Know What You’re Missing’ revisits a staple of the garage rock lyrical repertoire, the turning away from a good thing song. The pained shrug of the shoulders turning away from the girl who does not know what she wants. The music offers an arm around the shoulder to the narrator, who is certain he will be fine no matter what. It is all in the way Greg sings that title, making it clear that this is a pay-off not an ever-extending olive branch. The man is offering himself up, he is all ears but he cannot tell the object of his affections what she wants, that part is down to her. ‘Make It Up’ kicks the door down with guitar chugging intent and that organ sound that underpins the number is life blood. Again, the tune is tying itself in knots over everyday relationship tribulations. This time though the singer is focuses on making things right, “if I really broke your heart, let me make it up to you!”

After side one closed with ‘Moving And Shaking,’ ‘A Good Life’ is the albums second out-and-out, lush country ballad complete with yearning pedal steel as Greg sings to the simple pleasure of living the life you want rather than the life others would impose. The opening chords of ‘Just Say When,’ so crispy and brown in their semi-acoustic textures, could be trademarked as the sound of Autumn. This is clearly intentional as the opening salvo describes falling leaves and long shadows. It feels on this one like it is a song of retreating into the arms of love, a suggestion enhanced by the dramatic descending keyboard pattern in the chorus which carries a Bond-theme like punch.

‘You Ain’t Me’ has a deceptive sixties pop sheen glossing over a lyric that seems to be wrestling against depression. Greg is trading salvos with a partner, or just himself, to justify his handling of the problem. He argues that you can “cry while you’re laughing” and bats back efforts to pull him out of his despondency. So, if the you, who ain’t me, of the title tries to find a silver lining when waking to find the sun still shining, Greg does not need to know about it. He underlines this with “it’s hard to raise my head, but I’m trying.” Dig deep on that one and it is quite a dark moment, buried away as the penultimate number.

‘On And On’ closes the album with a universal truth though, for while the strains of Country remind the listener of the hurt and loss that is all around in life, the primary lyric states for certain that we can still believe in love if we let ourselves. “Yeah, love is still a choice” sings Greg and I do not take that to mean we can take it or leave it as if a commodity. What he seems to be saying is that love is still the thing that keeps us going, the air that we breathe because ultimately “we’ll still need love to carry on.” That is the thing I keep returning to when listening to perfect garage nuggets like this album, that the best things in life are the simplest and purest. And there are few greater things musically than three-minute pop songs built around electric guitars, bass, organ and drums, recorded with gritty analogue warmth and played with raw feeling. It does not get much better than that.

Find a vinyl copy of The Reigning Sound’s ‘A Little More Time With’ here:

https://www.discogs.com/release/18823081-Reigning-Sound-A-Little-More-Time-With