The Weakness

About

Ruston Kelly wrote “Mending Song,” the beating heart of his third studio album, <i>The Weakness</i>, in a moment of quiet, painful reflection. The Nashville-based singer-songwriter had decamped a little ways outside of town to live by himself in an old Victorian fixer-upper in nearby Portland, Tennessee, in hopes of healing from and processing what became a very public divorce from fellow musician Kacey Musgraves. The plaintive ballad about forgiveness came to Kelly in that time of solitude, uncorking an outpouring of insight and emotion that he would gradually form into an LP to follow 2020’s <i>Shape & Destroy</i>. Appropriately, the vocal on the album version of “Mending Song” is Kelly’s original demo, capturing the crackling energy and painful vulnerability of trying to grapple with grief through song. “Mending Song” is one of many such moments of raw honesty on <i>The Weakness</i>, which Kelly recorded alongside producer Nate Mercereau at the latter’s Studio Tujunga in Los Angeles. The album opens with its title track, an infectiously melodic anthem reminding listeners to keep their heads up in the face of life’s difficulties. “Breakdown” expresses fear of letting loved ones down, with an early-2000s alt-rock-inspired arrangement that fits Kelly’s unflinching delivery. Sonic deviations like that one—Kelly’s earlier releases fit more squarely in roots and Americana music—abound, with Kelly and Mercereau finding new ways to create big, sprawling soundscapes. And as always, Kelly’s gift for writing infectious melodies remains on display, as especially heard on cuts like the narrative “St. Jupiter” and the cathartic “Let Only Love Remain.”

via Apple Music

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