Review Summary: Dirt emo, a new life, and a reason to sing "Hallelujah Anyway".
Ruston Kelly has always had a penchant for writing lyrics that are blunt and to the point, with a transparency that could be uncomfortable if it weren’t delivered with the sense of earnestness that Kelly so strongly possesses. The change from 2018’s
Dying Star to
Shape & Destroy, his most recent release, could not be more stark. To go from a chorus of
“I black out in a bar/I get high in my car/I drive 'round in circles/'Till I'm seeing stars/I get so ***ed up to forget who you are” in 2018 to
“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” shows that there was a significant period of change in the two years between these releases. That period of change, from addiction to sobriety, from hopelessness to searching for sense, clearly shaped the theme of
Shape & Destroy. Ruston Kelly details the pieces of a life that had been torn down through addiction and a near-fatal overdose and then starts to put them back together in some way. The title comes from a free-write session Kelly had when he was struggling with his sobriety, with his identity, and with his self-worth. Though the lyrics from the free write did not make the album itself, they clearly reveal the theme of the album: “Shape the life you want to live by destroying what obstructs the soul.”
That’s the journey that Kelly describes on
Shape & Destroy, but it’s important to note right off the bat that that journey is nowhere near over for the Nashville based singer-songwriter. In “Mid-Morning Lament”, Kelly shares the aforementioned fighting of his urge to spike his coffee, but halfway through the song appears to have given up on that moment of strength:
”And so what, I spike my coffee?/Maybe I never learn/And I must admit the devil on my shoulder is a master of her words”. This simple back and forth displays the constant inner-fight Kelly has tormenting him. He may have won his fight with substance abuse, but he hasn’t won his fight with life yet. The album is a perfect balance of hope and despair, although with hope just barely winning out. This inner struggle is perfectly reflected in Kelly’s musical styling as well, within the genre that Kelly has coined “dirt emo”. It’s country music perfectly melded with pop-punk and emo sensibilities, a pairing that sounds painful on paper, but the heart-on-the-sleeve emotiveness of pop-punk blends right into the storytelling earnestness of country music. “Radio Cloud” is the prime example of dirt emo, wherein a slow-burn acoustic start gives way to a chorus that could blend into the early 2000s pop-punk scene without a second glance. This combination of genres also leads to some of the emotional and musical highlights of the album, with the ending of “Under the Sun” bringing a mixture of strings and power chords that lead into Kelly’s vocals sounding close to strained yelling. The style unmistakably leans more into country, but there is absolutely no passing by the influences that Kelly has brought in.
With that being said, the most emotionally impactful moments on
Shape & Destroy are largely due to the vocal delivery of Kelly himself. Kelly conjures a sense of empathy that few artists can. The back to back pairing of “Alive” and “Changes” takes incredibly personal lyrics and turns them into our stories. “Alive” is a love song that credits a partner for Ruston’s newfound look on life, but the song itself is incredibly bittersweet. Kelly was married to country superstar Kacey Musgraves for two years, with him crediting her immensely for giving him strength on his path sobriety. Musgraves and Kelly recently announced an amicable divorce, but
Shape & Destroy had been finished before their divorce. Musgraves’ fingerprints are all over the album, from lyrics clearly referencing her to her voice serving as backup vocals. The marriage ended on positive terms, but it is difficult to hear Kelly singing “You're cooking something in the house, singing John Prine/What a beautiful thing to finally be alive” while also knowing that the person that inspired those words is no longer as intimately in his life. “Alive” is followed by “Changes”, perhaps the most country forward song on the album and a plea for forgiveness to those who have surrounded him when he was at his worst, which becomes even more emotionally impactful knowing that Kelly’s father is a part of his band, contributing steel guitar in the very song where Kelly is asking for more time from those he loves.
The true highlights of
Shape & Destroy, however, come when Kelly is stripped back and left bare. “Rubber” is largely driven by Kelly’s voice and picked acoustic guitar with an ethereal background, with the song itself being a push and pull of Kelly fighting with whether he will find a true sense of self in his new life. “Pressure” is perhaps the most basic song on the album, with a simple melody and light piano and drums backing the acoustic picking. Then there is “Brave”, which is stripped back even further, just Ruston and his voice. Coming in the middle of the album, it is the emotional fulcrum of every idea that Kelly tackles on
Shape & Destroy and the main embodiment of the title. It has elements of Kelly reflecting on his past life, but largely thinking towards the future of what he can and what he hopes to be, and ultimately coming out stronger than he was before. The song is transparent and about as literal as lyrics can get, making it even more of an emotional sledgehammer. Even though it comes in the middle of the album, it is the perfect climax to everything that is explored. Every song on the album, every song that Kelly has written, and most human experiences can be tied back to “Brave”.
Shape & Destroy is just an iota more hopeful as it is painful, and that is all summed up in “Brave”:
And I didn't give up to the darkness
I fought with all my might
And I never took for granted
All the love in my life
That's how I, hope I'm
Remembered when I die
