Ruin

Extremely try-hard theatre kid melodramatic music that swells and reaches for epicness from the first note and flails around trying to get there for 40 minutes. Dual vocals, strummy guitars, rich string arrangements, operatic ambitions, a through-narrative. Then a few tracks without the strings and just a more sparse singer songwriter folksy thing, but with the same cringey lyrics (“I’m going to show my cat some memes”) and musical theatre melodic phrasing. A for effort, but D for not including anything I want to listen to.

EDIT: I originally gave this album a 3, which the below review reflects

This album has a very cinematic feel to it, it flows very well and it has those big dramatic strings you hear in movies, so I'm assuming this was an intentional choice. The music itself is indie folk, very powerful and well sung, though it veers dangerously into the "stomp clap hey" territory at times.

The lyrics seem very personal, and it seems like the submitter values them a lot, though I personally thought they were a bit to distracting and not the best. I'm sure it will resonate with a lot of people though.

Should it be in the main list: No

Top 3 songs: Secret Worlds, The Calling, Inkpot Gods

This definitely sounds like music that the guy from The Witcher would make, and not in a great way. The cover about sums up the vibe too. Just very cheesy over the top folk.

Was kind of hoping for more here, but it was mostly just inoffensive? Lots of songs feeling like they were on the verge of a religious montage backing track, but there was softer moments I enjoyed a bit more. The whole album kind of just exists, though.

A geordie duo, both actors, who love a melodramatic bombastic story song. An interesting choice, with no clear roots in time or place (accents aside), and which i thoroughly enjoyed

Very dramatic indie folk album, I did enjoy it even though it comes across as pretentious posh theatre kids at times. Overall I think this is Good choice for an album selection.

I'm done with indie folk.