Ruby Dawn. We have Carola Baer on keys & vocals, the principal songwriter who has easily the most sensuous and expressive voice I have heard, not merely in modern times, but quite frankly nigh on ever. Carola has faced personal challenges this past year, so her appearance and performance on the new album are a genuine triumph over adversity. Dave Salsbury plays some serious chops on guitars. Ian Turner provides us with a masterclass in melodic bass (he is also the producer), whilst Adam Perry is a wonderful fulcrum on drums.
The band’s debut, Beyond Tomorrow, was one of 2023’s most important albums, sheer class, and 2024 sees Blood On Water, a wonderful follow-up. From the moment you view the stunning cover art to the last note played, you are in the company of exceptional talent. Difficult second album? Pah! Nonsense!
The concept here is allegorical referencing Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. We have some personal experience and commenting on the human condition in general.
Juliet is seven minutes to start us off. There is a Floydian ambience to begin, and that voice of Baer’s has an immediate impact, but as the main piece explodes with a deep sense of anger at the waste and being blinded by anger at what surrounds us, the sense of the dramatic is palpable, an almost post-rock pastiche embedded within the melodies. This is as strong an opening as it is possible to get, Salsbury particularly providing for some thundering riffs and a majestic solo. There is a live video at the foot of this review for you to enjoy.
Arms of Love follows. It is a very timely paeon to the horrors of modern war and geopolitics, the innocent victims, on all sides, out on the streets, in the arms of war as opposed to the arms of love we all must hope and strive for as a human collective. This, incidentally, is not some “drippy, hippy” worldview, but a necessary and blunt message to those who seek to destroy and cause division. It is thoughtful, melancholic, with some fine orchestration, and you simply fall in love with the bass melody at its heart. Imagine Floyd meeting Porcupine Tree meeting Fleetwood Mac, via Dire Straits, and you will be somewhere near, but it is presented in an utterly unique fashion. No other band sounds like this. The emotion is palpable, and you are swept along in its path.
Alice Come Home is next, and this is embedded below. A search for peace, for comfort, for home, a clear analogy for the journey she has taken this past year. Turner & Perry are at the heart of this, a rhythm section driving an urgent piece of music, questing, evocative modern rock. The final minute brings us a collective at the top of their game.
The title track follows, and I love the references to the Garden of Eden, how poor Eve is always blamed for our species downfall in that misogynistic manner of history and powerful men. It is searching for a peace, love, and light, imploring us as a modern society to leave the apple where it is. The whole piece is dripping with classic rock sensibilities, the guitars are ghostly, and the sound fills the room & senses. The final guitar solo takes you to another plane.
Social Disaster is interesting lyrically, something I take explicitly as a real-life example. There is a nice bass melody underneath the sensitive synths and piano. Carola sings in the manner of a conversation with the subject of her words. When the guitars enter, it is understated, as if there is a lot of pent-up anger wanting to come out, but spends three minutes waiting and waiting, until Salsbury and the rhythm section literally explode out of your speaker in a glorious noise. Enjoy this roarer embedded below.
Easy Feels is a brooding meditation on cruelty and the choices we make. Again, what the band do so well is to provide a soundscape channelling the obvious (and well made) anger without the need to fall into the punk and death metal trap of mistaking a racket as the only outlet of what we rightfully feel. Some of the guitar work on this is stunning, a solo which hits every emotional brain nodule, Baer provides the top synth notes as we move to the conclusion, whilst the bass work again underpins all this alongside Perry providing a lesson to all aspiring drummers.
Chronicles of a Celestial Soul is an incredible title, raging against the system, injustice, fighting for air as we are surrounded daily by instances of utter cruelty and innocents ravaged. This is eight minutes of essential music. There is a gorgeous blues infused start, Carola referencing the miracle of our existence against all the odds, but somehow that dream is being ruined, we are a celestial soul whose being is tainted. The music accompanying is rumbling to start, but the pace picks up almost without you noticing at times, with some very effective and clever changes in volume and mood. There is another fine guitar solo on this track, Salsbury on fire the whole album.
Maker of Me is a plea, not, I think exclusively to the almighty as our maker, but also to the loved one closer at home (my wife is cetainly the making of me), a plea for love, understanding, protection. It is a fine collaborative effort, some of the keyboards so effective in putting across a range of emotions, predominantly asking, searching.
Run Rabbit, I think refers to emotional loneliness following a cataclysmic event. Where there was once laughter in the sun, now there is dark, the rabbit simply running round and around. It is modern blues at its finest, comparable to these ears to the British golden age of blues in the 1960’s, the band providing a sympathetic comfort blanket around the writer and singer, allowing the emotion room to be wrung out. The guitar solo is stunning.
Nothing Left to Say is achingly sad, the subject left alone. It can best be described as orchestral blues, with the bass and percussion shining, Baer never sounding so good, a case study in how to emote. Salsbury’s work rips the heart out of you, the emotion palpable – you can taste it.
This Garden closes the album, a commentary on how we are ruining our gorgeous garden. Eden no more. A choral lament, the underpinning notes are full of regret at what is happening to our planet.
This is not an album which will have you smiling and dancing across the room. It is an album full of important words about the human condition, on both a personal and societal level. It is perhaps the finest British blues album I have heard, a supreme band on top form. It is a work which demands respect and in a world of justice would sell by the truckload.
I would be surprised if it didn’t reach the top five of all respected review sites in 2024. For me, as I do not do such lists, this album will feature strongly and positively in the end of year narrative I do produce.
Blood On Water. A work for and of our times. Released on 1st November, you would be doing yourselves a disservice if you didn’t take yourselves over to https://rubydawnband.bandcamp.com/album/blood-on-water and grab a copy.