The Woman Who Loves You is the incredible debut from Ruby Jones; an album to be played within the depths of darkness and as dawn is about to break, it’s an album for the long lonely commutes but also to play with your loved ones in an intimate moment. It’s haunting production feels like a creeping shadow at times, but all it takes is a small dig to expose its riches which shine and glimmer. It has so many hidden beauties that it can only be fully realised through repeated listens.

The title track opens up with the faint sound of rain, a good indication of the atmosphere that surrounds the album - instantly immersive, you can almost feel the splash on your skin, like you could reach out and touch the song. Next up, ‘Griffith Park’ flirts with the listener, loaded with instantaneous delight. As the song progresses the sun cracks through the window and you can just feel the gentle warmth on the nape of your neck.

The pace slows down for ‘Cruel’, it’s sparse but the grip is still tight. It has the feel of mid 80’s R&B, however is still able to flatten the listener under its emotional weight. As the album floats along, we becomes more lost in the songs, but on ‘Backbone’ the anchor has been lifted; you can feel the tide pulling you out further, but we are kept buoyant by Ruby’s passionate vocals.

‘Siamese Twins’ is a track that sweats ands drips with full force. Its paralysing beauty feels like it could make your limbs go numb, which is a good thing because you don’t want to move at all for the duration of the song. After the song has been lifted to the stratosphere at the crescendo, we move onto ‘Make It Out’, a lighter side of Ruby’s sound that highlights her hypnotic, floating vocals. Like running towards the sunset, you can see it in the distance but you know you’ll never reach it, its beauty is just out of reach.

As the album rounds out, we’re treated to some of Ruby’s most evocative moments. ‘Running’ could have been lifted from a David Lynch film, and ‘Shakey Hands’ is a true highlight that nails you to your seat. ‘Lit Up’ has a hypnotic beat that places a voodoo spell over the listener for its three minute runtime, before it comes to a sudden end and the spell lifts, leaving us dazed and confused. The last track on the album ‘Closing In’ feels exactly like that, and as the instrumentation slowly gets louder and the fuzz permeates your ears to conclude the album, we’re left buzzing.

The Woman Who Loves You is a stunning debut release from Ruby Jones and potentially one of the year’s strongest full-length releases. To help us dig deeper into the record, Ruby has taken us through the stories behind each song.

The Woman Who Loves You

The opening track and the title track of our record ‘The Woman Who Loves You’ was written initially by Jules, my creative partner, and myself in two parts as I was in Nashville at the time and he was in Melbourne. On writing the song, Jules said “the genesis for ‘The Woman Who Loves You’ was definitely the drums. I really wanted to play over something with that driving drum machine sounding beat, so I made a loop and started jamming over it. I knew that if the groove was thumping and the guitar tone was crankin’ Ruby would take care of the rest and we'd be alright.”

I wrote the lyrics and the vocal melody pretty quickly - unsurprisingly a songwriting trip in Nashville was a fairly inspiring space. The title of the song is a reference to my favourite Fleetwood Mac song ‘Silver Springs’, one of the most damning and haunting break up songs of all time. I wanted to pay homage to that song because for whatever reason, ‘Silver Springs’ never made it onto Rumours which always baffled me. I too had written many songs for my previous band which had never made the cut and for that reason I’d always considered ‘Silver Springs’ a bit of a sonic talisman. The bassline is my favourite part of this song though, I think it’s the driving force of the tune. The rain sound is real too by the way, Jules and I sat outside for ages in the rain with a microphone under an umbrella. The record begins and ends with a thunderstorm.

Griffith Park

This song was inspired by my last day in Los Angeles after a very long and ill fated tour. My band at the time had just broken up and in the morning I walked to Griffith Park to process it. I didn’t choose to go there for any poetic reason, I just looked at what landmarks were walking distance from our house and it was either Griffith Park or the Scientology Celebrity Centre - I figured I was sad enough as it was and adding L. Ron Hubbard to the mix wouldn’t be a good idea. Loretta and Jess’s backing vocals on the track give it a real Crosby, Stills and Nash vibe which I think really adds to the Californian feel of the song.

Cruel

Was one of the very first songs Jules and I wrote together and it's the one that's gone through the most musical iterations. At first I pictured it as a country duet but we’ve played it as a rock 'n' roll song, a prom night meets David Lynch slow grind number, an Americana song and now feels almost like a Prince tune. Go figure.

Backbone

I took the title of this song from an episode of Carl Sagan's Cosmos called ‘The Backbone of The Night’. This song isn’t really about the celestial heavens, but I was watching a lot of that show at the time and I felt like it’d be a good line for a song. The line “Honey you’re the backbone of my night, and I’ve been killing myself just to keep it alive” refers to seeing someone as a constant presence in your life, but having to walk away from them before you completely lose yourself. I really love how the drums sound on this tune, I think Selwyn plays a real Fleetwood Mac vibe on this tune.

Siamese Twins

This song was inspired by a few days I spent in New Orleans, which is one of my all time favourite cities. I love it, it's a very witchy town and there’s fantastic music everywhere. The lyrics speak to being so angry with someone that you might have to wait a few lifetimes to get over it. I love the outro, the backing vocals are haunting as hell.

Make It Out

I wrote this song for one of my girlfriends who was in a really bad relationship at the time. It's really about the cyclical nature of toxic couplings and wanting to leave but wanting to stay. Not sure if it really translates because the instrumentation is so upbeat. I love the guitar solo in this song, it's my favourite part.

Running

I wrote this about the fight or flight response. I tend to run from trauma or danger. My teenage years were marred with domestic violence, I ran away from that literally and metaphorically. Music was my spiritual escape but also my way out because through it I was able to carve out my own independence. By the same token I somewhat used that lifestyle as a way to run away from and ignore my trauma. Touring has this way of feeling like every day is a do over because you’re in a different city every day and that really worked for me for a time. Then the band I was in broke up and I was forced to stop running. That's what this song is about really. My friend Arun from the band Dirthand and Jules sing this really fantastic backing vocal line; it might just be my favourite part. I also love the backing vocals in the chorus, a bit of a nod to my choir girl days.

Shakey Hands

‘Shakey Hands’ is a song about addiction and being in love with an addict. Substance misuse is obviously fairly common in the music industry, I’ve lived with it for most of my life. Loretta Miller and Jess Deluca sing backing vocals on this track and they’re just so beautiful.

Lit Up

‘Lit Up’ is about being in a long distance relationship and dreaming about bringing my boyfriend to America while I was touring, plus getting up to all sorts of mischief with my friend and bandmate Loretta and her sister Wynnie who was with us for a time in Texas. The percussion is my favourite part of this song, it stands out sonically on the record but I think it works!

Closing In

‘Closing In’ is about endings and new beginnings. I was inspired by driving through a Learian storm one night on tour in the United States, it was the moment I realized that my band was finished, that we would be just like that electrical storm - lighting up the entire sky for one brief and spectacular moment before disappearing forever. I think the instrumentation and the backing vocals perfectly capture the frenzied feeling I was trying to invoke. The closing line of the album is “And the night’s closing in around you, let a million stars surround you” it’s about trying to find the glimmers of light in what can feel like an infinite darkness. I’m not a naturally positive person - but it was important for me to end the record with a feeling of hope.