It’s easy to scoff at actors who try to flip a successful side career as a musician (and even easier when the opposite happens). Very often, the music feels like a vanity project or side work. With Raleigh Ritchie, that’s absolutely not the case.
Ritchie wants you to know that he’s the real deal. The actor, known better for playing Grey Worm in Game of Thrones, comes out of the gate strong, clearly with something to prove. Werld Is Mine grabs you and doesn’t let you go, and every track from that moment on feels like gravy.
It’d be easy to write about every song and simply say that they’re great, good, or wonderfully ambitious despite their failures. Jumping from bass-ridden back beats to orchestral symphonies backing him up, Ritchie is comfortable singing, rapping, or doing both at the same time.
More impressive is how open the album is: Ritchie is candid about everything from depression to problems with his therapist (Never Better), and struggles with his young adulthood on record for all of us to hear. In I Can Change, an early standout, he sings about his insecurities during the chorus and raps about his misdemeanours of youth during the verse, all overtop of a smooth R&B beat. (Young & Stupid explore similar problems). And it’s rare that two songs sound alike (compare Cowards to the others referenced as another example).
Raleigh Ritchie is clearly overflowing with ideas.
The biggest success of You’re a Man Now, Boy is how Ritchie manages to make all of these ideas as a cohesive whole — even when they don’t always work as well. Despite the occasional odd moment or misplaced beat, the album always remains approachable.
The album’s second-biggest success is that Raleigh Ritchie never feels like Jacob Andersen, successful television actor. It feels like a friend, going through some of the same struggles you are, sharing them with you. You’re a Man Now, Boy feels like a voyeuristic peek at Ritchie’s diary.
Raleigh Ritchie’s debut is a hook-laden, genre-bending trip down urban streets with a friend. It’s relatable. It’s catchy. It’s the rare debut that feels like it’s coming from an artist you’ve known for years.