What Is This Force

Lake Ruth “Julia’s Call”

Lake Ruth work in a relatively straight forward rock-pop paradigm, but their songs rarely if ever include choruses. It’s as if the shape of their compositions reject the convention – any time one of their songs feels like it could shift gears into chorus mode, the music moves in another direction, though not necessarily in a jarring or musically unsatisfying way. It’s more like they’ve always got a different idea of how to resolve a sound or build on a rhythm. The songs are always in motion, and the consistently prefer melodic instrumental motifs to vocal hooks.

This has an interesting impact on the lyrics. Since there’s no structure forcing Allison Brice to reiterate phrases, the words scan as actual poetry and convey complete thoughts. In the case of “Julia’s Call,” it’s a meditation on someone’s restlessness and eagerness to give up on their life and start again with people who aren’t aware of their baggage. Brice sees this as a delusional and self-destructive impulse, but has some empathy for her character. Or maybe it’s just pity?

Buy it from Bandcamp.