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Product Description
Review
Last year’s Animal Collective ascent took many by surprise. Sure, the band had delivered their most accessible album to date with the year-end-list-topping Merriweather Post Pavilion, but such was the group’s cult status that their crossing over into mainstream markets – daytime radio plays, festival headline slots – was a relative revelation.
Ryan McPhun-led New Zealanders The Ruby Suns could well follow the Americans’ lead with Fight Softly. Admirably accomplished though the band’s previous long-players have been – 2008’s Sea Lion was particularly special, a candy-coated cornucopia of tropical sounds, addictive melodies and indie sensibilities – Fight Softly is, while not a game-changer, certainly a level-raiser. It glistens with pop immediacy, rollicks with breathtaking percussive interpositions, and clatters to a beat entirely of its own construct. Elements familiar to fans of F*** Buttons, Vampire Weekend, The Very Best and the aforementioned Merriweather-makers are present, but the assembly here is inspired.
With the UK gripped, still, by bitter winter, records like Fight Softly serve as welcome sunshine, brightening any day with a sonic smile so infectious that all but the most doleful of listener will come away grinning like a member of the Glee cast in full hammed-up flow. It’s simply irresistible, from the first, enticing shimmers and chirrups of Sun Lake Rinsed through to the strangely curt climax of drums-out-front closer Olympics on Pot – which, despite the connotations of its title, is a distinctly energetic number.
The stuttering shuffle of Mingus and Pike – twinkling keys atop thuds and claps that sound cut and pasted like a Flying Lotus workout – breaks for an oddly Marillion-echoing mid-section; but the track’s sunny disposition ensures the mind doesn’t regress to a grey 80s state of no return. A slow down – akin to someone leaning on a CDJ, vinyl setting active, underwater – triggers phase three of the song, where those twitchy beats return and the whole comes together to render the components just that: pieces of a bigger picture that’s impossible to look away from.
With a Chris Ofili Upper Room vividness to proceedings, there’s every chance over-exposure to Fight Softly could result in a headache – the tropicalia two-step of Cinco, African vibes of Cranberry and washed-out synth-pop of Haunted House combine to comprise a potent experience. But Merriweather’s cover alone was quite the dizzying sight, the sounds within equally dazzling, and Fight Softly deserves to be as widely recognised. Hope, then, that its makers break under-the-radar cover imminently. --Mike Diver
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Big Warm Hugs and Golden Dreams,
By
This review is from: Fight Softly (Audio CD)
Essentially the handiwork of New Zealand-based musician/producerRyan McPhun The Ruby Suns new album delivers a big burst of warmth and sunshine at just the right time. (We've all had enough of the Long Cold Winter haven't we?!) His perfectly pleasant 2007 release 'Sea Lion', despite being a little rough around the edges, showed evidence of a musical imagination with the capacity to absorb ideas from many genres and cultures. Give 'Oh, Mojave' and 'Tane Mahuta' a listen for immediate elucidation. It is the lovely rolling harmonies on final track'Morning Sun', however, which seem to point the way forward. A taste of better things to come. 'Fight Softly' is a collection of ten compositions which slowly and gently seep into our consciousness without any need to wave placards or use insistent barging elbows to gain our attention. It is a grown-up affair. Mr McPhun's repeated use of luminous vocal harmonies is the glue which holds this gentle but always-engaging music together. They cast a warm, golden sheen over his beguiling musical landscapes. Opening track 'Sun Lake Rinsed' is a perfect example of how to make a beautiful song out of the very simplest materials. A economically effective synth and percussion framework supports Mr McPhun's confident falsetto, soaring like a lone bird over the surface of the glowing supporting harmonies. 'Mingus and Pike' has a stronger rhythmic presence but this is never allowed to overpower the subtely rolling melodic material. The half-heard voices in the small break at its heart are an enigmatic punctuation mark; an unanswered question mark left hanging in the air . 'Cinco' has an understated carnival air about it. Something to do with the shuffling quasi-latin rhythm and bouncy bass-line. Delightful. 'Closet Astrologer' is a thing of real beauty. Slow, stately and utterly captivating, this dream of a song is alone worth the price of the album. The echoing anthemic central section finds Mr McPhun singing like an angel, effortlessly and with ice-melting clarity of purpose. 'How Kids Fail' is another big song. The gentle introduction paves the way for the album's most raucous and complex composition. A riot of clattering percussion and wildly imaginative vocal invention. A blissfully unpredictable confection. Final track 'Olympics On Pot' brings this fine album to a rousing close. The experience of listening to it is a bit like waking from a dream without being able to remember just what it was we were dreaming about. Underwater Beach Boys harmonies and a big friendly beat. An elusive listening experience and all the better for it. This splendid recording is as close as music might come to giving you a big warm hug just when you most need it. Highly Recommended.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
3.3 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews) 2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fun, ambient listen,
By Alan Hogan - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Fight Softly (Audio CD)
I heard the song "Closet Astrologer" (''''') in a SubPop sampler and thought, I need to try the rest of the album! I was not disappointed. It's a very ambient, cohesive listen of muffled vocals, drumkit beats, and wishful synths. It makes good background music for the office.It's true this album is quite different from previous Ruby Suns albums. Regardless, I consider it well worth the listen. 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
the future!,
By damien - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Fight Softly (Audio CD)
with this album ruby suns are performing a new kind of extremely creative and enjoyable music as neon indian, picture plane, yeasayer, anoraak, wahed out, el guinsho and so on. With closet astrologer, they probably (and this is only my opinion) build the best song of the year.for me and for all the good time associated with fighting softlty: album of the year! 1 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
A huge pile of rubish,
By Christian Elcock "ESP" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Fight Softly (Audio CD)
It is well worth wondering what happened to Ryan McPhun between Sea Lion and this new album. Sea Lion was justly heralded as the album that was taking over from Animal Collective, when they started to go electronic with cheesy loops and beats. It was creative, entertaining, rich and far-out. Ryan had just come back from his travels around the world and the influences of various traditional types of music is very palatable. Scores of musicians took part in the project and gave it its amazing aura. It even featured a song written and sang in Maori.By contrast, Fight Softly is a solo effort, not a band effort. This crucial difference means there are no other musicians, and therefore hardly any instruments at all. Instead, Ryan has made the exact same mistake as Animal Collective: using corny synths and beats, when he should have sticked to the psychedelic pop he mastered so brilliantly. What makes it all the more annoying, is that there are more than a few glimpses of the origianl spirit of the Ruby Runs under the thick coat of plastic sounds, which remind what a great project this used to be, and leave you to conclude that the ideas are still there, while the artisitic direction isn't. This is arguably my biggest musical disappointment of the year. |
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