“You had me at hello”.
Not only is this one of many famous quotes from Jerry Maguire, but it is a phrase that perfectly sums up that feeling when you just know immediately that something is right. And in the cultural realm, it is when the creative bullseye has been hit with one perfectly executed art arrow of musicality. Such a moment was arrived at within the first few seconds of Ruby Walvin’s delicious Minus Five. And the three minutes and forty five seconds that follows just reinforces this view.
Minus Five follows on from her previous celestial releases The Game and Without You, and everything is just about perfect with this new composition. A haunting verse, sung in melancholy fashion (slightly echoing The Beatles Something) which sets the scene of Walvin inhabiting the melancholic lushness of relationship good fortune.
Her voice is warm, tender and oozes emotional fragility, which through a sense of sonic osmosis penetrates the listener’s sensibility. The arrangement of Minus Five is both nuanced and sympathetic, the synth waves reinforcing the swelling of primal emotion. It is a song of realisation that this love is maybe the love to end of all loves – “the crossword is complete”.
I had the double – edged pleasure to listen to the radio edit, because at 3.35 it starts to fade out just when a delightfully tender guitar refrain enters the soundscape. Ruby, you not only had me immediately, but now you’ve gone and left me hanging on.
More please.
Stream Ruby Walvin’s Minus Five on Spotify now.
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Photo Credit: Abby Meysenburg
Steve Kinrade
