Review Summary: eternally expected excellence
- A collaborative review by Sunnyvale & JesperL -
It's nine in the morning on a November Thursday. Somewhere in Amsterdam a 20-something walks through the city’s dreary autumn streets while pressing play on
Cures For Opposites for the first time. As Ruby Haunt's new album unfolds, he pretentiously thinks to himself: "life really is more beautiful with this music in it". A whole six hours later, it’s nine in the morning on a November Thursday once again, this time across an ocean in Boston. A slightly older (shhh…) dude sits on his couch listening to the same album for the first time. The same pretentious thought crosses his mind.
Besides connecting their small but loyal fanbase across the globe by means of beautiful music, dream pop’s hardest working duo still know how to open a record unlike anyone else. ‘Glider’ encompasses everything Ruby Haunt does best: gently meandering guitars underscore an equally soothing synth melody while Wyatt Innins’ vocals guide the song in and out of sonic consciousness. Most importantly, it provides an excellent introduction for the band’s seventh full length in as many years (not counting a plethora of EPs and standalone singles).
Cures For Opposites might be a short LP (clocking in at 29 minutes), but its seven-song tracklist is diverse, at least by the standards of a group which gets by via an (admittedly brilliant) reliable formula. For example, large swaths of “Laughing Heart” see Ruby Haunt lean into the shroud of a warm and near-ambient haze, while “Pocketknife” demonstrates a rare sense of vigor with its driving beat. These slight twists and turns are subtle, but highly rewarding in their very nuance. At surface level, the record is a wonderfully relaxing piece of music suited for cold streets and warm couches alike. For those willing to dig a little deeper, there are plenty of textures and melodies which reveal and illuminate themselves with each subsequent listen. A perfect example is the sparkly “Diving Bell”, which might just be one of the most explicitly
upbeat Ruby Haunt tracks to date, yet a sense of longing and despair hides beneath its lush synths.
It’s this somewhat deceptive complexity that sets Ruby Haunt apart from their (much less productive, mind you) peers. Moreover, it reaffirms the sense that the band are persistently on the cusp of a magnum opus: a record so brilliant the duo might need to start releasing music on Fridays instead of Thursdays. As excellent as
Cures For Opposites may be, this is not that album. If this isn’t necessarily a step up for the band, though, it definitely doesn’t represent a step back either: if anything, it establishes Ruby Haunt’s entire discography as a
magnum opus of sorts. If you are unfamiliar with their music, you can truly start anywhere: the band can still do no wrong.
Cures For Opposites is simply a wonderful new chapter for the highly talented introverts, and we suggest that you enjoy it.
