Both (2025)
Listen or buy: Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, Amazon, Bandcamp, Tidal, and anywhere that streams/sells music.
01. Brume
02. Fervent
03. Gloaming
04. Acorn
05. Eternalism
06. Dayflower
07. Calico
08. Beryl
All songs written and recorded by Randal Gordon Prater
Published by Doldrum (BMI)
Brume has extra guitars by Peter Sawtell – Fervent, Eternalism, Beryl have extra vocals by Shelley Gordon
This is the second album by The Shy Reserve. The theme is duality, fully embracing the number two. Half of the songs fall on one side of a given subject and the other half falls on the other side. Examples: Minor/Major keys, Higher/Lower than 100 BPM, Parallel/Relative keys, With/Without drums & bass, etc. Half of the songs were recorded fully alone, half with help from one other person (one with Peter, three with Shelley).
The first letter of each title gives a hint as to what key the song is in. From there, you just have to guess if it’s major or minor. There are two songs starting in B, which you can see fits in nicely with the ‘both’ theme.
All eight songs have videos on YouTube. The first one drops on the day of the album release, and then each new one drops every following Friday until they’re all out. The videos took longer to make than the album took to write/record, for what that’s worth. The male character (Linus) is meant to represent me (Randal) and the female character (Leah) represents Shelley. So, Linus appears in all eight videos and Leah appears in just the three songs that Shelley sang on. The two characters don’t meet until the final scene of the final video. There are a few Easter eggs to watch out for, if you’re into that sort of thing.
This is the second album in a row that was released on my birthday, and it’s a tradition I hope to continue each year that the muse is kind enough to cooperate.
Released October 24, 2025
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Azuline (2024)
Listen or buy: Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, Amazon, Bandcamp, Tidal, and anywhere that streams/sells music.
02. Secret Chords
03. Fillyloo
04. Grin Inducer
07. Beatrice
08. Eye Contact
09. Lower Lash Line
10. Porcelain
All songs written and recorded by Randal Gordon Prater
Published by Doldrum (BMI)
Porcelain has extra vocals by Lynda Mandolyn, plus guitar by Serge Vladimiroff and Peter Sawtell
After writing/recording five solo albums, one album for The Pagan States and three albums for Creeping Myrtle, I decided to start making music under a new moniker. The Shy Reserve was taken from a song title on the album Ode to the Urchin as a way to sort of go back to my original Shoegaze roots when I first started writing songs in the early ’90s, after being heavily influenced by bands like Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine. It was also the first album where I was able to play guitar again after nearly 15 years of mostly playing piano.
I’m immensely proud of this album, especially the opening track called Time Flies and Drags. After being stuck on that song for a year and a half and a million different takes of recording keyboards, I decided to buy a guitar (an emerald green Guild Starfire that I call Golders Green, named after the Pete Ham album of the same name). The song instantly fell into place after I added some gooey Shoegaze guitar tracks to it. The rest of the songs came together fairly quickly thereafter.
Released October 24, 2024
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