The Ruby Suns are a nice band, and their newest recording, Fight Softly, is a nice effort, even if it is a bit dense and difficult at times. There's not as many obvious highs as their last record, the mostly wonderful, sometimes grating Sea Lion, but that's ok, because Fight Softly is less spastic and more consistent than its predecessor. It features only one clunker, the insanely irritating "Haunted House." Every other song here is good-to-great, and though the melodies aren' t kick-you-in-the-seat awesome, they are oddly memorable. I started humming one while pumping gas not 30 minutes ago! Plus, the whole album sounds gorgeous on headphones, and there are many moments of warm goofy awesome atmospheric bliss. "Closet Astrologer" is such a highlight. It's got a great rhythm track and some sounds that wouldn’t sound too out of place on an Ulrich Schnauss record. Wait, it isn’t boring like Ulrich Schnauss records tend to be lately! It's good!Other highlights include “Dusty Fruit.” It sounds like it could be in a tourism commercial for some banana republic-if that banana republic's tourism board was mercilessly purged and replaced by rogue members of Animal Collective. The penultimate track, “Two Humans,” builds very nicely over its final half, serving as an excellent intro to the album’s true peak, the closing “Olympics on Pot.” Well, that’s a terrible name for a song, but it’s a really good song, with excellent low-end/drum interplay and beautiful vocals.
It’s good, if somewhat backloaded. There's lots of fun summer beach sounds, hidden melodies, enjoyable vocals, and semi-killer beats. Bring on the warm weather, please. B+
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