Review Summary: Beautiful, bite-sized melancholy.
Armed only with an acoustic guitar, tranquil piano segments and the devastating beauty of her voice, the solo artist behind Flower Face melts away the listeners defences and leaves them utterly exposed to the emotional journey that is the
Funeral Kid EP. While this album is not as immediately engaging as some of her previous work, it’s ultimately a much more rewarding experience because of it. Ruby takes a much darker approach with her songwriting here, maintaining an attitude with her voice that’s simultaneously careless and dejected; it’s the voice of someone that’s given up. Flower Face has always been a sombre project, but while her previous album
Homesick had the likes of ‘Bedhead’ to lighten the mood somewhat, there’s no gentle respite to be found on
Funeral Kid. Yet the album isn’t overbearingly depressing, and that’s the beauty of the balance achieved here.
Certainly, it’s the vocals that demand the most attention here, and deservedly so. The artist’s soft female voice contributes the most to the gloomy atmosphere that pervades the EP, perfectly complimenting the instrumental component. On tracks such as ‘Opulent Desires’, Ruby warps her voice for effect, while elsewhere she utilises other techniques to further enhance the albums overall mood. With such a focus on vocals, it figures that the lyrical content would have to be of a high quality to maintain interest and Flower Face does not disappoint. Clearly a lot of thought has been given to the lyrics, and while the exact meaning is not always clear, or intended to be, the emotional impact is never lost. One of the best examples of Ruby’s lyricism can be found on album highlight ‘Foxes and Sunflowers’:
“Will you meet me there at the break of day
When the tides rise up and the birds fly away?
Little soldier, little sun, little blue-eyed wolf
Sing to the mercy of the sky above.”
Instrumentally, the album is inclined to favour the acoustic guitar, with the majority of the tracks having a basis structured around disheartened fingerpicked patterns and wistful melodies. Closing track ‘Denouement’ is a perfect example of the guitar and piano working together, yet the intricacy of the fingerpicking draws more attention than the simple, chord-driven approach of the piano. In any case, the piano features quite prominently throughout the EP, whether it be accompanying the guitar as before or commanding the spotlight alone. The previously mentioned ‘Opulent Desires’, for example, is built around a foundation laid down by the piano and features a simple vocal melody repeating two lines for the entirety of the track, interspersed tastefully with a handful of subtle electronics. Conversely, ‘Morbid Fascination’ is almost completely devoid of authentic instrumentation, save for some very soft piano in the background that doesn’t gain strength until the closing moments of the song. Instead, the layered vocals are accompanied by well-placed synths and programmed drumming, giving the album a much appreciated sense of variety. Elsewhere, Ruby shows just how strong her songwriting can be, implementing a collection of interesting features such as vocal sound bites and samples, as well as an array of restrained electronic effects.
It is here on her third outing that Flower Face truly shines. The delicate honesty on display here is simply entrancing, coupled as it is with the strength of Ruby’s songwriting and captivating vocals. In fact, the bite-sized
Funeral Kid EP might just be the strongest album in the Flower Face discography so far.
