Ruston Kelly Breaks Down New Album The Weakness Track by Track: Exclusive
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The post Ruston Kelly Breaks Down New Album The Weakness Track by Track: Exclusive appeared first on Consequence.
Track by Track is a recurring feature series in which artists guide readers through every song on their latest release. Today, Ruston Kelly breaks down his new album, The Weakness.
Singer-songwriter Ruston Kelly has released his third album, The Weakness, via Rounder Records. Stream it via Apple Music or Spotify below.
The Weakness is an album filled with catharsis. After a period of loss and growth, Kelly emerged with an album of unreserved, hope-laced self-reflection. His candid songwriting reflects a sense of rediscovery and resilience laced with sharp humor. Anecdotes off the album include the time Kelly accidentally got high off of CBD and wrote a song about Michael Keaton, appropriately titled “Michael Keaton.”
The track “Let Only Love Remain” reflects on the aftermath of Kelly’s divorce. “I wanted whatever it was that I said about my divorce to be something I would find honor in 20 years from now. I wanted to try and speak from my better self, not get lost in anything small,” Kelly tells Consequence. “The largest sentiment I could think of was an unending love for someone while simultaneously allowing that love to fade into the background of my new life.”
The 12-track Americana album is largely acoustic-driven with alternative sensibilities shining through in the rugged guitar and vocal performance. Layered over clean percussion, Kelly’s hearty voice commands each track with grace.
Listen to The Weakness and read about Kelly’s inspirations for each track below.
Up next, Kelly will embark on a tour throughout the United States this spring. During the summer, Kelly will tour with Noah Kahan throughout North America. Grab tickets to both legs via StubHub, where orders are 100% guaranteed through StubHub’s FanProtect program. StubHub is a secondary market ticketing platform, and prices may be higher or lower than face value, depending on demand.
“The Weakness”:
This song was the first one to kind of anchor the theme of the record. It was unintentional at the time, I wasn’t “writing an album” — I was just, for the first time in a while, writing out of necessity, out of the confusion my life seemed to have swirled into. I was looking for bedrock, I needed a mantra. “We don’t give in to the weakness” came out immediately one night when I was just playing [with] no thought electric guitar and singing whatever came to mind. It hooked me into a mindset I thought I was losing, which was resilience and persistence despite your shortcomings.
“Hellfire”:
We’d been playing this song live for a while. I wrote it back in 2019 to fulfill a publishing quota requirement (lol), but it ended up being one of my favorites. You usually end up feeling closer to the songs that come out the quickest, without too much editing. You say what you need to say, and that’s it. It transformed live into a wild, Radiohead-inspired fall-apart jam toward the end, and I wanted to keep that sentiment on the record. I wanted it to be like floating for a while on fear and doubt, and then ramp into a kind of sonic equivalent to “fuck it.”
“St. Jupiter”:
A fantasy thought rooted in real-time wonderings. What if the setting was a flower shop I keep returning to and finding out more about my emotions regarding loneliness and separation each time? The flowers looked better when she planted them. I should’ve just let her know that at the time. Where they used to grow, they’ve died now. “How long until they return?” is the thought of someone who is having a hard time letting them go — but ultimately accepting the fact, leaning on the fire inside to keep me remembering what I changed my life for.
“Let Only Love Remain”:
I wanted whatever it was that I said about my divorce to be something I would find honor in 20 years from now. I wanted to try and speak from my better self, not get lost in anything small. The largest sentiment I could think of was an unending love for someone while simultaneously allowing that love to fade into the background of my new life. To address the scene it took place in to get there, say it, and then be done with it. A highly cathartic and joyful experience writing this song.
“Michael Keaton”:
Alright, so I was bored and confused one night, and decided to relax via CBD, but ended up accidentally buying a Delta-8 joint (this was 2020, so D8 was unknown to me) at a fucking GAS STATION (first mistake), and I got so accidentally high I wrote a song called Michael Keaton. The chorus, words, and melody came out all at once with no editing. I flipped the verses into a spot I was in at the time of attempting to date and experience new energy, and just kind of realized I wasn’t ready for that.
“Mending Song”:
This was the title of the record up until the final moments. It tells the story from start to now. It reemphasized not just a theme of owning weakness to find strength on this record, but also the theme of finding your foundation and sense of identity. Searching for that inevitably brings your focus to the beginning of things. The times you clearly remember awe. And how you lost it. And what it’ll take to get it back.
“Dive”:
This is one of my favorite songs on the record. I wrote it at my girlfriend Tori’s house when we first started dating early one morning on her piano. I kind of confirmed to myself in that moment I was ready to truly dive into a situation fearlessly, meaning I was going to allow myself to feel emotions I had associated with pain or loss. I was wrapped up in a fear of getting that torn feeling again. But I don’t believe living in an unaccepting way does you any good at all. This song helped me open myself back up to love and new possibilities in my life.
“Breakdown”:
Because of the pandemic, my second record’s tour was pushed to the fall of 2021. I flew to LA in May of that year to start working on this record, left and went on said tour, and while I was on tour, I was writing songs for this record on the bus and in soundcheck. When the tour ended, I flew back to LA to finish The Weakness and got home on Christmas Eve. I was so strung out and tired from overworking myself I was starting to develop symptoms of burnout in a very short amount of time. This song is literally that.
“Holy Shit”:
I got to work with a historic figure for this one. John Feldman (Goldfinger) produced pretty much every pop punk/emo/alternative record I was listening to growing up. I brought in this chorus to him, but couldn’t figure out how to wrap it up on the tag. I was like, “I’m either shooting a bullseye or trying… hmmm what needs to be said” And he literally just goes, “To miss.” His brilliance is keeping it clear and real. We finished the verses shortly after and that’s that. Just a song about doing your damnedest to be your best in spite of a lot of odds you’ve maybe placed against yourself.
“Better Now”:
I wrote this with Matt Koma, who is one of the most talented and hilarious dudes on the planet. I wanted to have a song that said, “Okay, and now what?” Meaning, in the aftermath of things that thinned you out, you can say to someone that you’re ready to be better and that if they stay with you through it, it’ll be worth it. That’s hope, and the hope is someone can also be there to remind you when you forget how far you’ve come.
“Wicked Hands”:
This is my favorite song on the record. Just as the process of healing isn’t clean or in a straight line, neither is figuring out your emotions about it through song. That’s why this song and “Cold Black Mile” end the record. There’s a lot of hope behind the struggle on this album and sequentially, I kind of seem to work things out within myself. But that isn’t always a completely closed book and there is still always so much to learn and continue to process when it comes to trauma.
“Wicked Hands” came out as a way to continue healing by acknowledging more of the pain. I couldn’t write the second verse until something monumental happened: I threw a box of things out that I thought I never would be able to get rid of. And as soon as it happened in real-time, I was able to write the rest of the song accurately.
“Cold Black Mile”:
To finish the record, the last thing I wanted to say was that even though a decision can be impossibly painful and seem like the confusion and hurt will never end, it may end up being the greatest thing you’ve ever done for yourself. The pain is so tall, but the reward is your identity and spirit returning fully. The trick is to just keep going. And it will be worth it.
Ruston Kelly Breaks Down New Album The Weakness Track by Track: Exclusive
Grace Ann Natanawan
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