With his fourth album, Strange, songsmith Seamus Ruttledge reveals an artist at the peak of his powers.
Strange is a paean to the finding of beauty amid the ruins of loss and separation. Adopting his stage moniker of Ruttlemush, Ruttledge’s collaboration with producer Axel Grude proves a triumph.
Classically-trained Grude offers a wealth of arrangement and orchestration to Ruttledge’s poetic pacing and cadence.
The producer clearly understands exactly what the artist wants to achieve, while also contributing on guitar, keyboards, mandolin, and bouzouki.
It says a vast amount for the compassionate style and charisma of the man that despite evident influences of Lennon and McCartney, Van Morrison and 1980s hitmeister Trevor Horn, this album feels quintessentially Ruttledge.
Indeed, it seems that his previous albums were mere drafts, building up to this work. Both the gentle balladic touch of Songs To Have With Your Tea and the wildness of Elementary Chaos are here, but far more perfectly formed.
Ruttledge has always explored the spaces in our emotional universe; the darkness of loss and past pain and the light of future love. These 11 songs express a wailing wall of melancholy and melody, joy and harmony.
The acid reverb-drenched title track is dedicated to Paul Cunniffe, one of the finest songwriters to come out of the West of Ireland, while "The Bible and the Gun" expresses the extremes so many of us have endured through recent difficult years.
Despite the loss felt in "Long Story" and the tragedy of "Secret Child", on "New Time" Ruttledge embraces the future, with pretty piano flourishes.
Sounding very much like a 21st Century hymn, "Beautiful Lust" offers soulful choral tones, while the playful "New Shoes" bounces along like a fresh sea breeze at your back.
On occasion this poet is able to portray the place where the sensual and physical worlds meet through music. Wistful and warm, All The Blooms is Ruttledge at his fluent and optimistic best.
Hidden as a bonus track, after 30 seconds of silence, you’ll find the exquisite love song "Spin My Wheel".
Go to https://ruttlemush.bandcamp.com/album/strange and download, stream or buy the CD.
