Back in May we wrote about Ruth Radelet‘s version of ‘Leaving the Table’, a take which “straddl[ed] the fence between pop and folk, with the timeless vocals and echoing melancholy adding a dash of Julee Cruise to Cohen’s classic.” The sound was indicative of the direction her solo work has taken, allowing the exploration of styles and themes perhaps not covered with Chromatics. This was best captured by 2022 EP The Other Side, a release, as we put it, which “confronted classic themes of love, loss and renewal after a traumatic period, with songs like ‘Crimes’ retaining the vivid Chromatics sound while those such as ‘Strangers’ allowed Radelet to break new ground with its almost orchestral pop tones.”
Ahead of a West Coast tour with STRFKR, Ruth Radelet has now returned with ‘Shoot Me Down’, a brand new single that further develops these ideas. Building from an brightly insistent opening, the track offers a rich and airy sound which belies the difficult experiences from which it was conjured. “Although this song is very personal to me, I think it tells a story that many people can relate to,” Radelet explains. “It started out as a sad girl piano ballad, written after a particularly bad night, and in the end became one of the most fun tracks I have ever worked on. I believe that creating music is a way to transmute pain, and making this song was healing in that sense. I feel joy when I listen to it now, whereas when I wrote it I could only feel the hurt.” What results is a kind of alchemic process. Pain and suffering not only overcome by music, but transformed into a curative substance which leads towards future empowerment.
