From Stourbridge and co-produced by Dan Whitehouse who also contributes guitar, pianos and backing vocals alongside Katie Whitehouse with Gustaf Ljunggren on pedal steel and Ryan Pinson on drums, Lynne herself on guitar and flute, drawing on influences that range from CSN&Y to The Breeders, she comes to making music through her experience using it as a therapeutic tool with children with additional needs. It was through this that she met her mentor, the late Alan Ellsmore, who encouraged her to write her own material and introduced her to Whitehouse.
Opening the EP, the title track with its circling reverb guitar pattern, pedal steel, hollow propulsive drums, ethereal synths and Katie’s backing vocals stems from a misheard sentence and, mining a The National-like tension, explores the claustrophobic isolation of a loveless marriage, struggling to maintain the facade of a “happy family” for the sake of their child (“Elsa makes toast while I pretend to watch TV/While my heart is on the coast and my dreams are in the sea/And while Elsa spreads jam I can’t help but stare/At your eyes which give a damn and not the smile you wear”).
The dreamy ‘Everlasting Soul’ with its electric guitar solo and keening synths is a song of gratitude dedicated to Ellsmore, her “guiding light” who was “stubborn and grounded, but underneath a magic charm/Always guiding and listening to the call”. More sonically abrasive with its distorted 90s grunge guitar masking a gentle melody, the lyrically raw and exposed ‘My Roman Empire’ is a literal and metaphorical exploration of how a toxic relationship can consume your identity, a stark note that not every heartbreak has a healing (“rather than your blessing/You just pointed out my flaws…I just wanted to flee this old town/But you fired your gun and watched me drown”).
Taking a lighter musical direction but no less philosophical in its concerns, ‘Here I Stand’ is described as “a dialogue between the competing facets of Ruth’s own identity”, a meditation on the pivotal choices that shape a life and the friction between confidence and doubt (“I cannot live my life this way/Always fearing the worst/Waiting for something good/When the bubble always bursts/I’ll keep on listening/For the bells to chime/They toll for you and they toll for me/Even if they don’t keep time”).
Floating on cosmic keyboard clouds and Pinson’s damp drums, the melancholic (“I skipped world happiness day”) ‘Requiem For A Lost Dream’ (musical hints here perhaps of ‘True Colours’) is an example of how she uses a collage-style writing process to create a “tapestry of stories,” blending fragmented ideas and imagery into a singular, moving narrative with such evocative images as “the ghost of trust wearing cheap musk” and with the defiance of “strip away fear, I am ready to perform/Even though it’s a test I’m bound to fail”.
It ends with the piano waltzing and poignant ‘Dear Child’, a lullaby for the past imagined as a conversation with her younger self advising “don’t put too much faith in love/Don’t give yourself away when you’ve got everything to lose… Don’t follow the crowd just to fit in/Don’t sacrifice your dignity”) and a reflection of lived experience with the received wisdom “Don’t compromise and give up your beliefs…Don’t settle for anything less than truth/Trust the instinct that you feel”. In the final lines she sings, “Remember what you are worth/And your purpose here on this Earth”. This EP suggests she’s found hers.
Mike Davies
Artist’s website: www.ruthlynne.bandcamp.com
‘Here I Stand’ – live:
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