Album Review
4-Stars (****)
By Anthony Kuzminski
Buy the record here or here
On a windy fall Chicago night in 2009, Ruby James revealed life anecdotes and the inner workings of her artistry over drinks and cheeseburgers. Over the course of the conversation, she spoke of her trials and tribulations like a survivor who is better for the obstacles she has had to endure. James began the conversation talking to me about how Charlie Sexton and his equally talented brother Will came to perform and produce her latest album, Happy Now. We’ve just seen the imperiously talented Charlie Sexton wield his sway on stage with Bob Dylan for close to two hours in a performance that was redefining and downright transfixing. Sexton brings Dylan’s music into sharp focus, which has been absent in concert halls since he left Dylan’s touring band in 2002.Her glinting baby-blue eyes hinted at vulnerability but little did I know what was about to occur. She moved her impenetrable long wavy red hair from her face and with this mere hand sweep she removed an invisible mask and proceeded to tell me “I’ve met my soul mate, but I can’t be with him. It’s not in the cards in this lifetime”. It was a sincere, forthright and severe pronouncement I wasn’t expecting. She found herself caught in the crossfire of the highway of hearts maneuvering between lanes trying to find her way home without a road map to assist. Despite her open candor, I didn’t anticipate that conversation to develop over the course of the next few months without seeing each other in person, emailing or having a single phone conversation take place. The record she handed over to me on that cold night with its bleak realities was sung by someone who isn’t afraid to convey agony, longing and distress, all of which are at the crux of Happy Now ; her latest record produced by Charlie Sexton. Atmospheric matters of the heart are layered with folk-rock-country-blues fills that give the album a scintillating feel on what I believe to be not just the best produced record of 2010 but one of the year’s best as well.
Ruby James mines her soul on Happy Now in a way that is intensely delicate. She manages something rare by creating music where the listener can not only revel in the aural beauty but identify with it. The intricate and personal details make Happy Now more than a mere record but a cathartic exorcism. “The Predictable Kind” inaugurates the record with a sprightly melancholy piano (performed by Charlie Sexton) where our narrator lets her brutal bluntness runneth over. James and Sexton brothers tap into a relationship gone sour where the upbeat number ripples with trembling ardor ultimately setting the tone for the whole album. The title-track features a tranquil vocal by James as the song and music weighs itself on fragile feelings as Will Sexton’s bass permeates the mood of the song with a lingering effect. “Another Day” with its radio-friendly instrumentation and production is inviting and slowly builds and is instilled with philosophical insight despite obstacles and hardships. The music is lush, as evidenced by the instrumental outro which echoes the sensation of longing in ways that compliments the lyrics. “Between Darkness & Light” is scented with ambiguity. Charlie Sexton wears another hat on the song with his brush stroke percussion allowing you to revel in the solemn lyrics.
“Angel Eyes” is about her persistent search for something momentous featuring a vocal that is downright defiant. On “Passengers”, the search continues (“I’ve been waiting, all of my life to be here tonight”). Written from a first person perspective of the night she met her soul mate, the hypnotic rhythm drives the song, her voyage and the album’s themes forward. The overall stark minimalism of the music provides dimensions to the heartrending nucleus of the song, which is possibly the album’s best. Sexton’s guitar only makes an appearance when necessary highlighting the album’s sumptuous organic sound which further accentuates the burning lyrics. This is the key to Sexton’s immaculate production of Happy Now, anyone could have performed these songs (which on their own are emotional powerhouses), but Sexton filled out the canvas infusing essence into the anguished lyrics. There is no GPS to guide pain and heartache and on “Until You Come Home” James takes alternates routes down the road of faith alone with only her tender heart in tow. “Say Goodbye” confronts of betrayal of loss of faith at the crossroads of love. As her fingers glide across the piano keys, her voice emits an enlivening eye-opening clarity and concentration. Her crisis of faith is greeted with the understanding and awareness; she knows the sun won’t just rise again, but it will shine brightly on her. It’s rare to meet anyone who can provide this much insight into the limits of their own heart.
To anyone ever led astray, Happy Now will permeate profoundly with its brutal directness which shares not just despondency but elation, joy and discovery as well. Ruby James is aware of what’s in the rearview mirror but isn’t obsessed with it because her eyes are on the road ahead. An artist’s believability is only as good as the lock on the door to their soul. This door houses their inner anguish and their true consequence as an artist is relies on their inclination to bequeath the key to these secrets. Ruby James has dismantled the door to her heart and her piercing stories of woe, lost love and eternal searching are here for us to savor and we’re better for it.
Anthony Kuzminski is a Chicago based writer and Special Features Editor for the antiMusic Network. His daily writings can be read at The Screen Door. He can be contacted at thescreendoor AT gmail DOT com and can be followed on Twitter
