Sometimes the songs we hear are cryptic or so ambiguous that almost every performance can fit into three minutes. It is not the case of the new disc of Ruston Kelly, in which lyrics as explicit as “I woke up dreaming of her face again / Fuck that guy he’s a piece of shit” (The Weakness) o “Was then I heard the words of my father / Have faith, there’s no storm that doesn’t pass” (Mending Song) tell the story of the divorce between him and country singer Kacey Musgraves. Kelly feels comfortable in that role of first-person narrator, as he already did with his debut that generated him some recognition and a fanbase faithful, hooked on those stories about his addiction to drugs and certain dark periods of living almost without a roof.
And although that debacle began almost by chance, what hasn’t been, is his ability to connect with pain and shape it into songs -twelve, in this case- on the way between rock and country. At moments, especially those in which the throats are stretched and the vocal chords are torn between ‘fuckings’ and lively guitars (“St. Jupiter”, “Michael Keaton”), is reminiscent of a clean version of John McCauley of Deer Tick and Middle Brother. Most of the record is delivered to half-times and ballads (“Let Only Love Remain”, “Dive”) with somewhat more commercial overtones (“Breakdown”) and accessible, accompanied by an acoustic guitar and little else. With “The Weakness” Ruston Kelly will have exorcised his demons and we have a handful of songs with which to accompany one of those trips with the windows down or throwing ourselves into the sea, as in “Holy Shit”. Everything’s fine.