Review Summary: Simple folk need their love songs.
In a way, it's kind of silly how I can relate and empathize so much with someone that I've never met. Yet I find it so easy.
Flower Face is the solo project of singer-songwriter Ruby, a girl from Ontario that "writes songs and sings them." It sounds simple, and despite the simplicity of the songwriting, there's so much more to her music than that. Over the ten tracks on this album, she pours her heart out in such a beautiful and moving way that it's simply remarkable. The execution is flawless, the singing is soothing, the lyrics are heart-wrenching, and the emotion in her music is omnipresent, from the slow-moving quiet verses to exploding choruses. It sounds like she's been doing it for years, yet this is only her second album.
The album starts off with one of the more upbeat and shorter songs on the album called "Bedhead", that despite sounding happy, is still a very heartfelt and moving track, and introduces you to what you'll be hearing throughout the album quite well. Most of the songs have a combination of acoustic guitar, piano, and vocals, and despite the similarity of the tracks they each have something different that sets them apart, like the lengthy heartbroken love song "Linger", or the shorter song with samples of a scared young boy "Bedroom Ghost." Ruby writes songs that while being conventional in structure, are her own style, her own personality, and are just plain brilliant, musically and lyrically.
Through the ten songs and thirty six minutes of this album Ruby explores many different ideas and emotions, and they are all executed flawlessly, so much so I find it entrancing, how every time the album ends I immediately just start it over. Her soothing soft voice over piano and folky chord progressions is more than enough to draw you in and, at least for me, move you immensely. Just the words she says, and the way she says them, is so honest and beautiful.
"I pass your gravestone on my way to school
beside a white fence backyard swimming pool
get to class, calm my shaking bruised up jaw
fall asleep behind books about algebra
And I dream about a world where we both wake up
with sleepy eyes and coffee cups
and the cloud factories way up high
paint pictures of us in the sky"
"Knee socks, heart shaped sunglasses
I've tried so hard not to cry in front of you
you told me I could be anything i wanted
all i want to be is everything I'm not"
Those are just some of my favourites on the album, all of the lyrics here are great in their own right, touching many subjects from drugs, past relationships, current relationships, and never feeling like you're good enough. The music always fits in perfectly with the lyrics, and her singing complements them perfectly as well. Through all the songs on this wonderful album, Ruby has crafted an amazing experience that I've been blessed enough to discover. If you're a fan of immensely beautiful music that isn't pretentious or long-winded, listen to this. It's just right.
"You're forgetful on your best days, but I hope that you remember me."
