Tyler Lyle Releases Solo Album THE TRANSCENDENTALIST
The Atlanta songwriter and THE MIDNIGHT band member shares Letting Go of the Long Game as the album's focus track.
Atlanta's own Tyler Lyle, songwriter, vocalist, producer and multi-instrumentalist best known for his work with synthwave standard bearers The Midnight, has released his first solo album in seven years, THE TRANSCENDENTALIST. Previewed by the singles 'Pondicherry,' 'Death's Commuter Blues,' and 'Nagano,' the 10-track collection marks a return to the intimate, confessional songwriting that defined Lyle's solo work before The Midnight.
Leading the album is the focus track 'Letting Go of the Long Game,' a deeply personal reflection on confronting uncertainty and learning to live in the present. Written in the shadow of his wife's cancer diagnosis, the song captures the emotional heart of THE TRANSCENDENTALIST, as Lyle grapples with the fragility of life and the realization that even the best-laid plans can unravel in an instant. 'Letting go of the long game / To make today matter,' he sings, setting the tone for an album ultimately rooted in resilience, healing and finding meaning in the here and now.
Written during a period of profound change, THE TRANSCENDENTALIST explores the intersections of illness and recovery, fatherhood, aging and learning to let go. In the wake of his wife Anna's battle with blood cancer and subsequent recovery, Lyle found himself reexamining his relationship with creativity, identity and the expectations he had placed on his life. The experience brought him face to face with the limits of control and the possibility of finding clarity amid uncertainty.
'That feeling was accompanied by these lucid moments of presence that I've never had before,' Lyle says. 'You're driving home from the doctor's and just seeing how vivid and stark the colors are in your neighborhood for the first time. It's kind of shocking to be in so much internal pain and also so close to – I don't know – the true nature of the world or something like that.'
Whittled down from 40 self-recorded songs, THE TRANSCENDENTALIST was produced by Lyle and features Grouplove's Ben Homola on drums, Daniel Gleason on bass, Rhett Shull of The Midnight on guitar and T.J. Elias engineering.
'It's all a singular journey toward a healing that I didn't think I was headed towards,' says Lyle.
Photo Credit: Andrew Thomas Lee
Photo Credit: Andrew Thomas Lee
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