
Nana Grizol – Ruth
So you can imagine my disappointment when preliminary listens to the new album Ruth revealed a much more relaxed and chilled-out approach. I mean, I have pretty simple taste; I just want to hear men beating things with sticks and grunting, you know? So this new album took some warming up to before the songwriting exposed itself as just as awesome as its predecessor. While the approach is significantly more languid and sleepy, with those snappy horns from the last album lending a lazy undercurrent to this new one, Hilton’s songs are still just as stirring an affecting. Instead of beating down your front door they shyly wait outside for you to let them in. “Galaxies” and “Blackbox” move along in a kind of rousing shuffle and showcase Hilton’s ability to craft effortless pop. The few adrenaline shots of “Gave On” and “Arthur Hall” prove to be more rewarding with each listen and work well against the band’s newfound affinity for negative space in the form of sparse piano movements or bare bones slowpickers such as “Cynicism” and “Atoms.”
The only major missteps come in the form of the near-comatose carousel instrumental “Alice and Gertrude,” which honest-to-God made me forget the album was playing the first couple times through, and “For Things That Haven’t Come Yet,” which literally sounds like every high school ska band’s demo. All in all, the new one doesn’t have the immediacy, the “punch to the gut” if you will, of the first one, but it’s just as delightful and earnest. Do yourself a favor and see these guys live, all right?
Nana Grizol - Ruth,