THE PRESS RELEASE: “The Most Mysterious Man in Music follows a five-year arc to his fourth full-length Christian, produced by Grammy Award winner Alex da Kid. It pays off on the promise of the critically acclaimed triptych — Hotel Allan [2016], Roadhouse 01 [2017] and Harry Hard-On [2018], along with the 2017 EP Courtney — as Allan Rayman ventures into new territory once more. When describing the new album Allan commented, “There’s naivety and angst in Christian. It’s a bigger range of emotions. It’s Allan’s first stab at a full body of work. It’s the most confident album Allan has made.”
MY TWO CENTS: Toronto singer-songwriter Allan Rayman has been one of the country’s best-kept musical secrets for a few years now. That’s not entirely an accident — he intentionally dodges the limelight, doing few interviews and maintaining a minimal online presence in order to let his music do the talking. And clearly he has a lot to say about fame, faith, family, love, beauty, passion, fashion and more on his fourth and most ambitious release Christian. And he says it with a deft mix of style and skill, setting his slurry, soulful rasp against a multi-textured backdrop of thumpy hip-hop grooves, rolling guitar and basslines and theatrical samples and effects. Will it change him from a mystery man to a household name? Only time will tell. But it certainly marks him as one of Canada’s most individual and inspired musical talents.
