Ruston Kelly - The Weakness (April 7, 2023) Album • Page 24

I realize I am thread bombing here, but I listened to this album* again today, and I can safely say at this point it is my second favorite thing he's ever done, after only Dying Star.

It could end up being my favorite but it's a little to early still to tell.

 

I've liked each album just a little bit less than the one before. All three are great, though.

 

Every album has its definite highs. But dying star is the GOAT.

I dig the tracks from weakness etc too

 

Shape and Destroy was my introduction to him and at first I liked it better than Dying Star but Dying Star has since overtaken it. Wasn’t really into The Weakness unfortunately.

 

i like S&D most but it’s pretty neck and neck with dying star. both are head and shoulders above the weakness, which kinda stinks

 

I'm not trying to change anyone's mind here, but I find it completely baffling that someone could like Dying Star a lot and not like The Weakness.

I am the weird Ruston Kelly fan though who didn't really care much for Shape & Destroy. I don't think it's terrible, it's okay enough, but it felt like a pretty sizeable step backwards songwriting wise for me after the masterpiece that is Dying Star.

 

i just don't find the songs to be very good, I still think he can drop another great record though

 

I get that. That's how I feel about S&D. When it first came out and everyone was talking about it I remember feeling like I was listening to a completely different album than everyone else after absolutely loving Halloween & DS.

 

I kind of just love everything this guy has done. There is a balance to his style that hits all the ven diagrams of what I love in music. Dying Star is his best, but The Weakness is probably my favorite.

 

Dying Star really has that "I needed to make this album or I was going to explode" feeling to it. I really like all his stuff, but I think that album has a totally unique magic to it that isn't necessarily there on the other albums. So, I can totally see loving that one and not being quite there on the other two.

 

Why do you find it baffling? I find Dying Star and The Weakness to be very different both sonically and lyrically. And for me personally, I just didn't find The Weakness particularly compelling in either way.

 

it's not that they are sonically similar so much as a sense of experimentation and exploration in the sounds - some of the songs on DS pushed his sound in some unexpected directions. S&D felt a lot safer and more straightforward and I think he picked that back up again on this one. I also get the feeling from this one that Craig described DS up above with, where he absolutely needed to make this album and it exploded out of him, but I realize in reading a lot of people's responses that many fans don't really feel that way.

 

Shape & Destroy has individual moments that might be my absolute favorite songs he's done (Radio Cloud, Rubber, Under the Sun) but I prefer the other two as a whole. It's a terrific chill listen, but it isn't quite the emotional powerhouse that Dying Star and The Weakness are.

 

Halloween is so underrated

 

I still like S&D the most out of all of his records, could never get into Dying Star unfortunately. The Weakness is great, and has some of his best songs, but it's inconsistent front to back

 

This would be goated Weakness IMO

1. The Watcher
2. The Weakness
3. St. Jupiter
4. Let Only Love Remain
5. Michael Keaton
6. Heaven Made The Darkness
7. Dive
8. Breakdown
9. Holy Shit
10. Belly Of The Beast
11. Wicked Hands
12. Cold Black Mile (Hotel)

But yeah its Dying Star - Halloween - SAD - Weakness

 

I think S&D is the best, and builds on Dying Star in a really good way.

At the Madison show he insinuated that he had those same feelings.

I think The Weakness was great too, it was my album of the year that year, but I could go without Hellfire, Dive, & Breakdown.

He also seemed to sum up The Weakness as an experiment, and not something that would carry into the next record. He also talks a lot of shit though so maybe that’s what he was doing.

 

Imma stop you there lol what?!

 

Hellfire is one of his best songs ever!

My version of The Weakness looks like this:

1. The Weakness
2. Hellfire
3. St. Jupiter
4. The Watcher
5. Let Only Love Remain
6. Michael Keaton
7. Mending Song
8. Heaven Made The Darkness
9. Breakdown
10. Holy Shit
11. Better Now
12. Nothing Out There
13. Wicked Hands
14. Cold Black Mile

I didn't really wanna lose "Dive" but "Heaven Made The Darkness" is a better song and I thought the whole worked better this way.

 

The live version of "Hellfire" rocks, but I never felt like they got it right on the recorded version.

 

yeah idk! That one just never landed with me. I don’t dislike to the point of skipping it, but it never really did anything for me.

 

I think that sums it up for me. The studio version was just missing something. I had heard the live versions previously & was super stoked for it. I was ultimately pretty let down by the studio take.

also, “Nothing Out There” is such a good song! Not sure how that got left off the record, unless it just wasn’t done.

 

im making the complete unofficial rule that you have to keep the same amount of songs when making the GOATED weakness

 

Yeah, I usually try to stick by this rule myself, but for me "The Watcher" & "Nothing Out There" are absolutely essential to the album, sound wise & lyrically.

I kinda see a trend now with how most people prefer the Hotel Version of "Cold Black Mile" to the original album version, whereas I like the original version better and feel it fits the album much more. Hotel Version is awesome on its own, but the original version fits the sound of what they were doing with the album much more, with the musical (electronic?) flourishes, which is something I absolutely love about this album's sound. The outro from "Hellfire" might be my favorite part of the entire album.