Fearing love lost, the Australian singer wears his heart on his sleeve over the 45-minute runtime.
London-born and Sydney-raised, Ruel (real name: Ruel Vincent van Dijk) got his first break at the young age of 14 after his father shared one of his demos to Grammy Award-winning producer M-Phazes. Ever since, his profile has burgeoned.
Keep up with the latest music news, features, festivals, interviews and reviews here.
Six years later, the singer looks back at the whirlwind of his adolescent relationships as he wrestles with self-sabotage and a broken heart on 4TH WALL. Introspective with a cinematic swell, Ruel brings together some of his best tracks to date.
Album highlight Japanese Whiskey finds Ruel admitting that he can’t be who his lover wants him to be, unsure if he’s staying out of care or comfort. Boasting a rollicking guitar solo with reflective 80s sheen, the melodrama soars. Similarly intense, Lie is heartbreakingly crooned: “So lie and say you love me / Lie one more time / Stay with me and painfully, just say we’ll be alright”.
Even the more upbeat cuts find Ruel in reflection: lead-off single Growing Up Is _____ packages into gleefully nostalgic funk the struggle of facing your mistakes. Evoking the feeling of a slow-motion flick on rewatch, his romances all have their ends in plain sight, but on 4TH WALL, their final moments have a melancholy beauty to them.
The typical Ruel guitars aren’t as prominent this time but they mesh well into the new sound, in conjunction with well-blended waves of piano and reverb, his qualms are elevated to filmic proportions. This is deserved: the melodies are near-all winners here, and Ruel’s vocals have never sounded better.
After so many short films, Ruel finally has his feature length and it’s been worth the wait.
Pick up a copy of 4TH WALL here.
