REVIEW: New Ruins - This Life Is Not Ours To Keep

Sounding like Silver Jews in places and Richard Buckner in others, with the ability to create a wall of sound with the backbeat and bass, yet still sting you with ragged Crazy Horse riffs, New Ruins come on real strong. Other influences also portend well for guitar rock fans - they namecheck Built to Spill in track 8, "Homes of Rich Blood". First time through the record, I was impressed... a couple more times through, this might be on my "Best of 2011" list.

Here's "Blackbirds":

BLACKBIRDS.mp3 by New Ruins

Here's a video of them performing "Crazy Annie". One of the things I especially like about them is their mastery of the tension/release in the guitar lines, which is featured prominently on this track. Also, three guitars!



If you like artists who combine a laid-back vocal style with all kinds of great guitars, don't hesitate. You can listen to a couple of tracks at their website:

New Ruins Website