Ruby Dawn are a UK-based progressive and alternative rock band who have created quite a stir in the progressive rock community of late, with their 2023 debut album, Beyond Tomorrow, as well as and many well-received live performances on the UK prog festival circuit. For me, what makes them so exciting and refreshing is their sonic uniqueness. Whilst modern prog rock shapes much of their sound, it is also rooted in the realms of rock, with touches of psych and alt. rock, trance-like grooves and ambient influences, with a powerful, signature sound courtesy of Carola Baer’s soulful and blues-tinged vocals. The band mention Pink Floyd, Porcupine Tree and Massive Attack as influences, but this only touches the surface when it comes to trying to describe them.
Their newly released second album, Blood on Water, not only continues the promise of their debut album, but knocks it out of the park! It is a stunning ‘tour de force’ that absolutely drips with raw emotion and power and takes the listener on a cathartic rollercoaster of a journey that will leave you emotionally drained, yet fully sated.
On Blood on Water, Carola’s meticulously crafted lyrics tackle themes of injustice, freedom, conflict, love and war, and humanity’s place in the Universe. As much as anything, it is her own, deeply personal experiences that have shaped this intense and dynamic album.
“It is an electrifyingly powerful album,” she says. “Deep with meaning, nuances and suggestive connections. Like a journey or an experience, where you can really delve deep into possible hidden emotions to feel, experience and hopefully release. Blood on Water is the human experience, with references to some of the literary classics and common themes. We didn’t set out to write this kind of album, it emerged. It embodies so many elements of life, history and humanity. This is an emotional, truly heartfelt album.”
Carola’s vocals are amongst the most emotionally intense I have encountered for many years. She can conjure up that fragile, child-like and vulnerable Stevie Nicks-type lilt, but then mix it up with that raw, blues-drenched Janis Joplin-like intensity that can delve deep into your heart and soul. It’s a voice that easily expresses a whole lifetime of experience – whether joy, sadness, love, loss, hope or regret. She is also a talented and classically trained pianist whose expressive playing can help shape the musical sound so effectively.
She has found the perfect expression for her music within the band structure of Ruby Dawn. Dave Salsbury is a wonderfully intuitive guitarist who can bring elements of psych, prog, rock and even blues to the sound, whilst Ian Turner and Adam Perry lay down a strong, unselfish rhythmic foundation on bass and drums, but can add sparkle and diversity when called upon. Ian also brings production, programming and orchestration expertise with him to help create the band’s rich soundscapes.
Juliet opens the album wonderfully. It starts with an atmospheric ambience and a dreamy sense of unease from the hanging guitar notes and softly tapping percussion. Carola’s melancholic vocals are introduced over moody bass and are full of regret and pain. The gradual increase in rhythmic tempo with accompanying keyboard notes builds up a lyrical and musical tension that eventually cannot be held back any more and bursts out powerfully with Carola’s emotional cry out, and some rich guitar riffs from Dave. The Shakespearian Juliet is the personification of love, peace, Earth and beauty, and Carola angrily laments how she was “blinded by rage” and “missed out on your beauty, Juliet. I fought them instead” as she contemplates the waste, injustice and conflict she sees around her. The yearning anger is palpable and remains throughout the song, with some soaring guitar soloing over the keyboard backwash and Ian and Adam’s increasingly intricate bass and drums. It’s an emotional opening track that really stuns the senses.
An ethereal and plaintive amalgam of voices and orchestration begins Arms of Love and maintains much of the despairing feel of the previous track, with a delicate piano pattern accompanied by mellow guitar and bass notes before the sudden entrance of Carola’s almost spoken vocals of “Wish I had a home. Cold on the street. Rather be in the arms of love than in those of war.” The song is a powerful, and sadly contemporary, contemplation of the horrors of war and the innocent victims of betrayed by the unfeeling political machinations of the world. Dave’s guitar has the blues-edged feel of Dire Strait’s Brothers in Arms before the music takes an intense and forlorn turn, with the child-like innocence of Carola’s whispers shifting to a full-on and heartfelt cry for peace.
The deeply emotional character of the first two songs is continued with the rich, dynamic potency of Alice Come Home. Released as a single late last year and seen on several well-received live appearances, it is another great track by the band. The song alludes to the literacy character of Alice, but rather than Wonderland, she has been on a more intense, futuristic and confusing journey around a devastated Earth. The lyrics are an aching plea for her to return to her home, where there is love, peace, dignity and civilisation. Over a modern, electronica-edged introduction Ian delivers a swaggering and funky bassline along with Adam’s penetrating and twisting drums creating a pleasing groove, with Carola’s searching vocals transforming into a commanding, screaming plea for Alice’s return from her dark nightmare. This modern slab of driving rock with progressive nuances works so well, with Dave’s forceful guitar increasingly propelling the music, as Carola gives her all! “Alice, make your way home. The rivers have gone. You can’t live there anymore. Alice, come home!”
After the tumultuous ending of the last song, Blood on Water is more measured in tempo, but starts with a lovely slice of blues-rock guitar. Lyrically, the song is a contemplation on Adam and Eve’s response to temptation in the Garden of Eden and the subsequent fall from grace, away from the love, peace and the warmth of the light that once existed. Framed within our contemporary world, Carola asks us to “Hold in esteem the golden apple of our time. Connect to the light of life” and urges us not to waste the opportunities the world can give us. There is some impressive and rich musical ensemble work from the whole band that allows the track to steadily flow throughout – although the closing guitar solo through to the final spoken request to “Leave the apple where it is” is rather special indeed.
Social Disaster continues with the album’s underlying rage at the world and the personal conflict and unfeeling waste around us. Carola seems to be talking through, on a personal basis, the social and emotionally cold and dangerous mess we find ourselves in. The music is urgent, undulating and volatile, with strutting bass and drums, a Floydian-like rhythm with the guitar before it takes flight later on.
Easy Feels has a brooding quality and while Carola’s piano and Dave’s guitar initially create a sombre, reflective ambience to this look at the cruelty in the choices we make, the synths and guitar begin to dominate, while the bass and drums support the weight of the track securely. Despite another beautiful guitar solo, the sad and disillusioned vocals maintain the darkness of the music. There is no hiding from the relentless pathos Ruby Dawn conjure up, but the cathartic release and emotional heft is quite stunning. “Isn’t it an awful thing to do, to be cruel…”
Chronicles of a Celestial Soul is the longest track on the album and benefits from the extra time it is afforded. It starts in a measured and intimate fashion, but then gradually builds up a head of steam with stabs of dark and heavy guitar riffing, with excellent drum complexity and pulsating bass from Adam and Ian. The floating keyboards work wonderfully and set up another fine, lyrical guitar solo from Dave before a satisfyingly intense conclusion. Yet, throughout it all, Carola’s yearning voice weaves its magic as lyrically it looks at the miracle of our existence and contrasts it with the injustice and damage life has imprinted onto our souls on our journey every night and day.
By contrast, Maker of Me, is a more intimate, questioning prayer, not only to God, but to those close to us who help us be the people we are. Lush keyboard chords, flitting guitar motifs and an unselfish bass and drum rhythm support the stream of consciousness vocals, which become more earnest and emotionally pleading towards the end as the instrumentation builds. This relatively short song really demonstrates how Carola completely bares her emotional soul to us throughout the album with such personal lyrics and such vulnerability in her voice.
The link to Alice in Wonderland is possibly alluded to in Run Rabbit, but here Carola says that the rabbit symbolises freedom, folly, fertility, trickery and innocence and is running in the garden of Earth (or Wonderland for that matter). It suggests such a life of a joy in the Sun is no more and there is only cold indifference to our suffering. “I am tied here in the dark. Run rabbit run in your garden, the garden that once shined for both of us.” Carola deliberately uses symbolism in her lyrics to allow the listener to interpret them in their own way, and maybe contrast the light and dark in their own lives. Musically, there is a real blues and classic rock feel here, with a solid beat and more exceptional guitar work (with a Neil Young-like sonic quality), along with the powerful vocals and melodic piano. Accessible and anthemic – this is a song that seems destined to go down well when played live.
Nothing Left to Say starts like an introspective, piano-led ballad, with the vocals full of sorrow and regret, and then steadily builds in tempo and intensity, with more blues-rock guitar soloing, rumbling bass and vibrant drums. On one level this could almost be a love song but look again and there is a sense of betrayal and loss of innocence compared to what the feelings used to be. The repeated refrain of resignation: “Nothing left to say to your heart…” certainly cuts deep, and Carola has the voice to underline this emotion powerfully.
The final song, This Garden, rounds off the album perfectly. Starting with intimate, hushed and wistful spoken words, the lyrics are full of remorse and regret as the Garden of Eden of old is juxtaposed with the way things are now in our world. A deeply emotional track full of inner pain and sadness reflecting on what might have been, with vocals so beautiful and yet so fragile. “Who has taken, who has sold this garden?” Simple piano and luscious keyboard sounds are joined by expressive bass and drums, with plaintive harmonies and then another poignant release of electric guitar. The final musical culmination is stunning and as the piano slowly fades the hopeful words of “It doesn’t have to be so” stay hanging in the ether.
Over eleven tracks (and over an hour of music), Blood on Water, is one of the most moving, intense and emotionally draining albums I have heard for many a year. That does make it a demanding and challenging listen at times. However, if you fully immerse yourself into its lyrical darkness, heart wrenching vocals and stunning musical diversity, you will be fully rewarded. This is an artistic masterpiece exploring the human condition that dares to bare its inner heart and soul, where the boundaries of what constitutes progressive music are stretched to the limit, creating music that is both accessible and yet wonderfully challenging and complex. Easily one of my albums of the year – I cannot recommend this outstanding album highly enough. Ruby Dawn are a singular force of nature to be reckoned with within the modern prog world. Enjoy this stunning album and check them out live, if you can, in the months to come – you won’t be disappointed!
TRACK LISTING
01. Juliet (7:09)
02. Arms of Love (4:47)
03. Alice Come Home (5:17)
04. Blood on Water (5:29)
05. Social Disaster (6:07)
06. Easy Feels (5:52)
07. Chronicles of a Celestial Soul (8:09)
08. Maker of Me (3:45)
09. Run Rabbit (5:58)
10. Nothing Left to Say (5:30)
11. This Garden (5:10)
Total Time – 63:13
MUSICIANS
Carola Baer – Vocals, Keyboards
Dave Salsbury – Guitars
Ian Turner – Bass, Programming & Orchestration
Adam Perry – Drums
ADDITIONAL INFO
Record Label: Independent
Country of Origin: U.K.
Date of Release: 1st November 2024