“A consummate artist and composer, Rightley centers his life around music. With “Spiralhead,” however, he is learning to stop focusing exclusively on ends and embrace the means instead.”
— USA Wire
“...crunching alternative rock, storytelling Americana, and progressive art pop. Kyle’s free-flowing and genre-defying approach is the real appeal of The Hum...”
“No matter who he performs with—and he plays with quite a cross-section of acts in Madison’s music community—your eye is always drawn to Kyle Rightley on stage. The lanky guitarist hovers above his bandmates like a sky dancer, one of those inflatable waving tube men you see in front of used car lots. Of course it’s not his tall, wide-eyed good looks that get him gigs. It’s versatility and something extra he says he’s always had: musical empathy.” - Andy Moore
“[Rightley's] new solo effort, The Hum, does include some Americana elements but they are employed as one piece of what as a whole is a very impressive mixing of varied musical styles — often smoothly juxtaposed in the same song. No matter the style, Rightley's empathetic and aware storytelling is always at the fore.”
— Isthmus
“The Hum is hard to summarize. Slide guitar slices to the quick, chamber-pop brass elevates poignant disappointments into elegant hesitation...Rightley’s perceptive lyrics unify the album’s encyclopedic styles” - John Noyd
“The classically trained multi-instrumentalist sounds as legit in this genre as he does in jazz and country/bluegrass.” - Joel Patenaude
“...a talent for spinning honest tales from clear-eyed lyrics...” - John Noyd
“…windswept folk guitar trimmed in mandolin and graced with a clear calm voice.” - John Noyd
“…rooted in traditional Americana that resembles political forebearers like Joan Baez or Willie Nelson.”
— Isthmus
“Low guitar notes cut through the sound of falling rain in the opening lines of "Song for the Flatirons," a pretty and wistful highlight of Kyle Rightley's latest EP. Titled The Bleak, Barbarian Pines, the album is the Madison artist's sophomore solo release, but it doesn't sound like the work of a green musician.” - Julia Burke
— Isthmus