Fun fact: when I was very young and first learned the expression “woe betide” I immediately assumed the past tense of the expression would be “woe betode” as in – after the betiding came in, and you are now recalling a previous encounter with calamity. While time and education has proved me wrong, I still think “woe betode” is an excellent expression, and oft-needed when describing some formerly encountered woe.
Shall we move along to the review, then?
Disc 1845 is…Shape & Destroy
Artist: Ruston Kelly
Year of Release: 2020
What’s up with the Cover? With its marbled deep red and black background and gold embossed sticker, this cover had me thinking of a fancy box of chocolates. As everyone knows, the exciting thing about a box of chocolates is you never know what you’re going to get. In the case of this assortment you get…the Angel of Death!
Yes, if you look carefully, you can see a scene in the background which is a reprint of a 19th century engraving by Levasseur called “The angel of death striking a door during the plague of Rome”.
I don’t usually resort to any visuals past the actual album cover here on the Odyssey, but this engraving is simply too cool to not see in its full and terrible majesty, so here it is:
Upon further review, this looks more like the angel of death’s assistant striking a door, but let’s not quibble. The angel is providing clear direction that this door gets a knocking. As for the poor fellow who answered – woe betode him!
How I Came To Know It: I don’t remember, but it was most likely reading a review, since like the rest of us back in 2020, I wasn’t able to get out on the town much.
How It Stacks Up: I have three Ruston Kelly albums, and this one is tied for first place with 2018’s “Dying Star.” However, I don’t allow such quibbling cowardice as a tie in the “How It Stacks Up” section, so I’ll put “Shape & Destroy” in at #1.
Ratings: 3 stars
Feel in the mood for a good wallow, but you prefer a mid-tempo lament to a slow dirge? You’ve come to the right album, with Ruston Kelly’s sophomore full length album, “Shape & Destroy”.
If you don’t know Ruston Kelly, he makes pop/country crossover music with easy and effortless melodies, and heart-baring lyrics. Before you start having horrific visions of Kenny Chesney, please calm yourself. Not that. More on the folksy side of country. Less Kenny, and more Dawes. It’s still overly polished in places, but it is OK to like it.
This particular record is a “get sober” album, and most of the songs are heartfelt explorations of Ruston Kelly’s doubts, fears and regrets as he emerges from a bad bout of addiction. It works because his approach reads as 100% authentic.
Coming out of substance abuse usually means you’ve got to make peace with yourself, and a whole host of other folks to whom you’ve done wrong. Kelly embraces the mission with raw and unflinching truth. By doing this, he brings you into the inner reaches of his personal journey – whether that means he’s scared, or hopeful or just plain unsure.
Sometimes these songs capture the shame of trying (and not always succeeding) to get clean, such as on “Changes” where he screens out the calls from people who love him simply because “The disappointment in your voice would hurt me most of all”.
This is followed up by “Mid-Morning Lament,” on a day when the demons can come calling at the most unexpected of times, with:
“I wanna spike my coffee but I know where that leads
And it ain't the safest feeling
When the angel on your shoulder falls asleep”
I like this as a follow up to “Changes” because you get the sense he finds solace and security in his art. At one point drawing, and another up on the roof with the crows, writing a song and trying not to think of what he almost did to his coffee and of course, himself.
The trilogy of great songs culminates with “Brave” which is about more than being brave, but also about visualizing himself as someone who can be. “Brave” is also the best vocal performance on a record that features many good ones. Kelly has a natural hurt in his raspy delivery, which makes all these songs feel like weary confessionals. They can end with messages of hope or fall just short, but either way his singing always reaches for that better place deep inside, and in so doing drawing his audience a few steps closer to grace.
My biggest challenge with this record is the production which would benefit by being a bit rougher around the edges. It is good stuff, and it is straight from the heart, but the smooth doubling of the vocals sometimes feels like Kelly pulls his punch with a song that could have easily knocked the wind right out of you.
It's a minor quibble. This record is a beautiful and uplifting apology – both to himself and to loved ones he’s hurt – and if there’s a chocolate coating on the pain from time to time, it just helps it go down easier.
Best tracks: Radio Cloud, Changes, Mid-Morning Lament, Brave, Hallelujah Anyway
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