Pale, Through the Window＜Colored Vinyl＞

Ruston Kelly comes clean with his emotions on his fourth album, 2025s Pale, Through the Window. The follow-up to 2023s The Weakness, the album finds the South Carolina native once again reuniting with longtime producer Jarrad Kritzstein. Together, they dig into some of the most emotionally straightforward and romantic songs Kelly has written. Having overcome drug addiction and a 2015 overdose, as well as a well-publicized divorce, Kelly has plenty of baggage to unpack. Its a feeling he conjures on "The Great Wide Open," a slow-building anthem that highlights the potent emo-influences running through his work. He sings, "From all the weight I carried/Everything for so long/Into the grеat wide open/I surrendеr and I fall." Its that feeling of letting go and accepting the most honest version of yourself that is imbued throughout all of Pale, Through the Window. Theres a sense that having been through tough times, Kelly has found a level of solace and maybe even a deep, lasting relationship. Perhaps hes met someone who fills his "soul with solid gold" as he alludes to in "Pickle Ball," a song that nicely evokes the twangy guitar rock of Wilco. Hes more explicit on the album-closer "All In," his voice trembling with throaty affection as he sings, "I’m sitting in your kitchen with your mom and aunt and sister/With my hand on your leg/And it just feels right." Whether its the tremulous and self-critical title track, the pedal-steel accented "Wayside," or the effusive "Waiting to Love You," Kelly beams with a rooted sense of who he is. All of this is highly relatable and Kelly excels at writing songs that immediately pull you into his emotional orbit. ~ Matt Collar