From the “raging clock” that marks the beginning of the record, to the poignant self-assessment of the final seconds, Roman à Clef’s Abandonware is a record that plays out like a film, inviting the listener to consider their own lives through the kaleidoscope of stories found within. Rejecting a straightforward narrative in favor of impressionistic passages, the actions (or non-actions) of the characters in Abandonware give the unmistakable impression of New Wave films, or the fiction of Roberto Bolaño, Italo Calvino and Thomas Pynchon. Roman à Clef is Ryan Newmyer (A Sunny Day in Glasgow), Jen Goma (ASDiG), and Kurt Feldman (Ice Choir). When Newmyer began writing the material that would become Abandonware, he endeavored to create deceptively complex songs that would unfold and reveal themselves with repeat listens. This required an exhausting rewriting and revision process, and ultimately, the help of additional talents and perspectives. He found perfect collaborators in fellow ‘80s pop obsessive Kurt Feldman, who brought the songs to life with endlessly lush and inventive production and arrangements, and ASDiG bandmate Jen Goma, whose acrobatic voice and searing wit provide a perfect counterpoint to Newmyer’s bemused baritone. Abandonware is filled with songs that stretch out in unexpected directions, slyly deconstructing conventional song structures at every turn. Verses, choruses and hooks abound, but they do not fall where one might expect. The sprawling compositions provide a home for rich character studies, living lives that look not unlike our own; in turn, warm and humorous, bittersweet and tragic. Blink, and you could miss it. Rewind and repeat, and be rewarded. As in all good stories, the end is the beginning.