Ruby Dawn - Blood on Water (2024) [Hi-Res]

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.