By Ljubinko Zivkovic, Rock At Night Amsterdam
Review: Ruston Kelly – The Weakness-Release date: April 7, 2023
When you cross genres as an artist you can go two ways. One is following the flow and just do it “by the ear” (particularly in music), or as Ruston Kelly did, invent a completely new genre, or sub-genre, if you will.
Nashville resident Ruston Kelly took the latter trail. He named his cross between rock, country, and what not else on his initial EP and now two albums, that include his latest, ‘The Weakness,’ as “dirt emo.”
Naming it as such Kelly probably had in mind his road to becoming a musician, from his native Michigan, to Brussels, Belgium and then to Nashville at the tender age of 17.
On his latest, album, even though it is only his second, Kelly sounds like a mature and fully developed artist. He tracks his experiences tackling loss and personal growth, and emerged as he began to process the number of life-altering changes he experienced the previous year.
The songwriting is fully developed, so are the song arrangements and so are Kelly’s lyrics and the vocals that tackle them – full of sense and emotion. Sure, emo tackling all the life’s struggles and, yes, dirt. Kelly is an artist to watch out for.
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