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Thursday, June 24, 2010

Rodeo Ruby Love - This Why We Don't Have Nice Things


Rodeo Ruby Love - This Why We Don't Have Nice Things
2010, Crossroads Of America Records

Indianapolis, Indiana’s Rodeo Ruby Love returns on June 29th with their third album, This Is Why We Don’t Have Nice Things. What started as a side project has grown into a 7-piece working band, one of the more popular acts in the greater Indianapolis area while touring both coasts and the south.

Rodeo Ruby Love opens with "Elizabeth", a matter of fact assessment of a relationship that collapsed because neither partner tended it properly. It's a diagnostic that's indicative of a larger world view given in a simple folk delivery. "America's Funniest Home Videos" is a great piece of rock n roll songwriting featuring a snappy chorus about coping in a modern world. Great hooks and a deep pop sensibility combine with punk energy to make this song go. "Secrets" takes on the immaturity and needfulness that can drive a relationship over the brink. Rodeo Ruby Love delivers this lesson with a light touch that makes it more entertaining than it might sound in words.

"Black Sunday" is another parable, this one about coming face-to-face with your own imperfections while trying to make a relationship work. It's the most sobering lesson of love, and once again Rodeo Ruby Love makes it entertaining by make the point but not driving it too deep. Unrequited love is the theme of "The Melody", and "The Coming Up Roses" is as upbeat and happy as you might expect. The highlight of the album is "Beast Of Joy", which highlights the joyous highs that can overtake us in love. The arrangement here is classic.

"Rickey Henderson" may be the most obscure baseball reference in a rock song in 2010, and Rodeo Ruby Love jump from irony to depth with "No One But Us", a catchy tune highlighting the old theme that we live together but die alone. "No One But Us" exhorts all who will listen to make the best of the moments they have with the ones they love. "Josephine" finds the comforts of love once more ("beside you I can finally rest") before Rodeo Ruby Love close with "Careful With That Axe". The song is a soundtrack of the band's collective lives to date; a cute closer with a positive outlook that is very entertaining.

Rodeo Ruby Love gets deep without rubbing it in your face on This Is Why We Don't Have Nice Things. Serious emotions are studied with a self-deprecating air that is refreshing; a studied attempt to gain better understanding without taking it all too much to heart. Rodeo Ruby Love has a penchant for solid melodies and strong, encompassing arrangements, the sound works well for them. This Is Why We Don't Have Nice Things is worth spending some time with.

Rating: 3.5 Stars (Out of 5)
Learn more about Rodeo Ruby Love at http://www.rodeorubylove.net/ or www.myspace.com/rodeorubylove. This Is Why We Don't Have Nice Things drops on June 29, 2010. You can pre-order the digital version from Amazon.

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