Since we were first introduced to Ruston Kelly with his 2017 EP ‘Halloween,’ the world has been waiting for his first full-length album, and it was well worth the wait. ‘Dying Star,’ reads as an outpouring of stories Kelly needs to tell, a ‘document of self-destruction and salvation,’ told in the most poetic and beautiful way. Melancholic but uplifting at the same time, the record details Kelly’s experiences with addiction, including time in rehab and an overdose in early 2016. Despite the difficult themes on which the record is based, the album is a beautiful reminder of redemption amidst heartbreak and the ugliness of the world. What Kelly has done so well here is create a true masterpiece of an album, with thought put into the first track as much as the last, a true work of love and passion. Produced with Jarrad K (Kate Nash and Weezer), alongside local musicians like Natalie Hemby and Joy Williams, the record is timeless, harmonica and guitar pairings meaning it could be placed in the roots of country and Americana music, yet electronic effects rooting it firmly in the present. It is one of the most beautiful and real records we have heard in years.
Kelly says that ‘Dying Star’ was conceptualised while his life was still in disarray; ‘I’d been making a lot of poor choices, using substances to alleviate the sense of something being wrong with me upstairs… I decided I was going to quit doing all that, and the moment I made that decision I had this epiphany: I was going to make a record called Dying Star, and the last song would be called ‘Brightly Burst into the Air.’ Recorded with an ensemble of musicians, including his father on steel, at Sonic Ranch in El Paso, emotion seems to have been transmitted from the stars onto the album, and it is clear that every person involved in the project deeply cared for it – almost as a catharsis from the past.
His past is raw throughout the album, but the record is not despondent, instead it feels hopeful – the flip side of the suffering he has undergone – a powerful line separating the past from the future.
‘Cover My Tracks’ is a powerful introduction to the album, a wistful reflection ‘How the hell do I return to normal, if I’m always ending up flat on my back. Well these are the golden years, thought I’d never find them, just watch them disappear…’ The track re-introduces you to that gorgeous grit of Kelly’s voice – both so unique, and so loaded with raw emotion. Though wistful, the track is upbeat and not despondent.
The introduction to ‘Mockingbird,’ builds, with piano, steel, guitar and harmonica building one-by-one upon each other, building to a gorgeous old-school romantic tune. ‘I’m gonna write a book and put your name on every page’ – not a conventional love song, but a beautiful melody, filled with more romance than the whole Top 100 Pop chart. The song as Kelly details is about finding a way out of a cyclical pattern of a doomed relationship, and Kelly’s ability to use this theme with the comparison to birds is a magic touch.
‘Son of a Highway Daughter’ carries on a similar vein. The vocoder-enhanced a capella introduction is a particular stand out. Here, Kelly’s storytelling capabilities shine to the full, telling the story of life as the son of a highway daughter, born in gasoline ‘I went to Dublin / Where I found I found god in a bottle of wine.’ The length a cappella introduction is an important departure from usual song structure and demonstrates Kelly’s ability to push the boundaries and visualise the album as an entire entity, rather than just as a collection of individual tracks. The vocoder building an atmospheric interlude in the album, before ‘Paratrooper’s Battlecry’ – a yearning track, filled with a feeling of desperation combined with an almost sarcastic approach to said desperation; ‘Feels like I’m cursed when the drugs don’t work, so I bought a statue of Jesus.’
‘Faceplant’ is a personal favourite from the album, a catchy and casual approach to singing about his transgressions; ‘Took too many pills again / Blacked out for a week / Didn’t eat, didn’t sleep / Came to, did it all again’ ‘Feel like I’m going to fall down / But I was born and raised in an earthquake state, so I’m better on shaky ground.’ The song flows, with beautiful female backing vocals and harmonica that serve to ease the track on its way and keep it from despondency. The track pairs beautifully with the similarly harmonica-ridden ‘Blackout,’ that is about as raw and honest an approach to despair that we have heard. ‘You drain every little bit of me away / And you know I ain’t doing too well / But I’ve found a few things that help…I get so fucked up, till I forget who you are/ I dumb down my head, so I can’t feel my heart pound.’ It is Kelly at his best in terms of songwriting – honest but beautifully poetic in equal measure.
‘Big Brown Bus’ – one of the singles pre-released from the album – offers another side to Kelly, a departure that sounds almost The Killers-esque. An anthem for travellers near and far. Similarly anthemic and more uplifting in nature is ‘Mercury,’ providing an uplifting approach to hitting rock-bottom.
The next track, ‘Anchors,’ allows the genius of Kelly and Jarrad K’s production to shine through in the shimmering tones, that pairs beautifully with the wistful nature of Kelly’s tone. ‘She’s raising her anchor / She’s looking to shore… I’ve got to watch her float away.’ Alongside ‘Just for the Record,’ Kelly demonstrates his ability to write originally about love, avoiding any stereotype traps, a song about letting go ‘Say it was all a cloud of smoke / Say it was nothing but a joke, / Everything that you said about me is true, / Just for the record, I really loved you.’ It’s a song about finding peace in letting the other person move on and is instantly relatable. ‘Trying to Let Her’ follows a similar vein – and again the shrewd production is visible here, with birds chirping near the end of the track.
‘Jericho’ exemplifies yet again the genius of Kelly’s songwriting, with the idea of wisdom gained through his transgressions. ‘Learn how to die for something/ So you don’t live your life for nothing.’ His lyricism here is impressive, writing as a poetic masterpiece in itself. When this is combined with near-perfect production and melodies – the result is magic.
The title track from the album serves as the powerful reminder of Kelly’s journey back from rock bottom, a hopeful note on the album despite it’s heavy-hearted nature. “When stars die, it’s one of the most galactically powerful things that can happen in the universe,” Kelly says. “It’s one of the most beautiful things you could ever witness, and it also gives life to new stars—so basically that death is essential. To me that all connects back to how I knew I needed to change, and I needed to see that change as a promising thing.” Such a sentiment is present in the track, ‘I’ve just been lost in the dark, I went way too far this time,’ a sense of testing boundaries, in losing it all, finding redemption and self. It is a beautiful, meandering melody that does justice to its galactic counterpart.
Finishing off this masterpiece of a record is ‘Brightly Burst Into the Air,’ that exemplifies Kelly’s ability to see the album through as a project in its entirety and the theme of galactic change to the end; a culmination of the songs before, drawing the tracks together. Kelly’s Dying Star is a triumph and a sublime achievement of songwriting and musicality.
Top 3 Tracks:
1. Blackout
2. Son of a Highway Daughter
3. Dying Star
‘Dying Star’ comes out on the 7th September via Rounder Records.
