Emma Ruth Rundle – Engine of Hell

Release Date: November 5, 2021

Label: Sargent House

From the label: Engine of Hell is stark, intimate, and unflinching. For anyone that’s endured trauma and grief, there’s a beautiful solace in hearing Rundle articulate and humanize that particular type of pain not only with her words, but with her particular mysterious language of melody and timbre.

A gentle melancholy piano line introduces album opener, Return. I guess it’s time to cry. Rundle is about to tear your heart to shreds. On the downtrodden acoustic guitar ballad, Blooms of Oblivion, Rundle explores childhood trauma and the task of working through it as an adult. She describes this song as describing “the feelings I had as a little girl and how that’s shaped who I have become”. She sings “Down at the methadone clinic we waited / hoping to take home your cure / The curdling cowards, the crackle of china / you say that it’s making you pure.” The Company is also excellent and beautiful. A poem that came to the author in a dream.

Listen to: 1, 2, & 4

FCC: Clean