The full-length album breathes heavy and winded from a peculiar place in 2016. For most artists, the thought of releasing an extended collection of songs is a daunting experience, not because of the effort involved in writing and producing a dozen or so tracks for one unified release, but to cater to the expected notion that most of those songs will be largely ignored by a singles-mad public and its ever-shrinking attention span. But sometimes birthing an album is an absolute necessity — to declare permanence, to vault a blossoming career forward with greater strides, and to show that maybe, just maybe, this artist isn’t fucking around any more. Sometimes a story needs to be told.
Enter Ruby Rose Fox’s debut LP, Domestic, perhaps the grandest independent release we’ve seen in Boston in a long time. A successful crowd-funding campaign allowed the homegrown vocal dynamo to build the record on her terms, and not loosely compile a collection of previous singles and releases, to instead shape a vision and story with freshness and precision. Those new to Ruby Rose Fox will understand her mind’s creative force; those familiar with her around the Boston scene will appreciate the bold step forward, weaving together a modern sound that defies genre confinement.
As Fox prepares her album release tonight at the Middle East in Cambridge — the culmination of a very long build-up that began last year with the launch of a successful Pledge campaign, and dating back even further when these personal, anecdotal songs first began to take shape — it’s Domestic that feels both familiar and new. We’ve featured Ruby Rose Fox on these digital pages multiple, multiple times, but when she takes the stage tonight it’ll feel like we’re seeing her for the first time. That’s what a songwriter does, that’s what a storyteller provides, and that’s why an album, sometimes, is necessary in an age when most commentary is counted in characters and not words. These songs feel like chapters, and the vinyl issue of Domestic feels quite literary.
Of course, you can’t “quick hit” an album, and individual chapter presentations are still required as bait. So taking the queue from last October’s video release of “Dance of Frankenstein” (one of the many perks given to Pledge contributors), Fox has unveiled two companion videos for the Domestic singles “Bury The Body” and “Rock Bottom”. Watch both below.
Joining Fox tonight in Central Square are Jeremy and The Harlequins, Julie Rhodes, and Weakened Friends. Get advance tickets here, and more details are on the flyer below.
