Album Review | ‘Engine of Hell’ by Emma Ruth Rundle
Rundle takes us into the dilapidated remains of a life in this dark, acoustic offering.
Emma Ruth Rundle’s past with the alternative group Marriages gave us our first taste of her songwriting skill. Her solo work has expanded on the heavier sounds she once held onto.
Leaving behind the dreamy tones of her prior releases, Engine of Hell opts for a completely acoustic treatment from top to bottom. It’s in this buzz and clank that she exorcises the demons of addiction and loss that have ensnared her.
Rundle discussed how the time felt right to release a stripped-back project, like those she favored, with Rock’n’Roll Journalist:
“There were several different sort of reasons and motivations. And then it kind of just coalesced at the time, I had been longing to make a record like Engine of Hell, for many years. I really love the approach of very bare bones stripped down music. One of my most favorite albums is Pink Moon from Nick Drake. Things that have this poignancy to them that are just extremely basic. And the way that I write music typically is in the same way, you know. It’s just a guitar and a voice. In this case, just a piano and a voice. And that’s how I play and perform when I’m on a tour without my band, which I’ve had…
