Nashville singer-songwriter Ruston Kelly’s second full-length album Shape and Destroy comes on the heels of his announcement about his separation from his wife Kacey Musgraves. That being said, Musgraves still appears throughout the album. Shape & Destroy is a collection of personal songs about growth, transformation, and overcoming struggles while attempting to soothe one’s soul during troubled times. Many of Shape & Destroy’s songs are about Kelly’s reflections on life and represents the first album he recorded sober after a long, hard struggle with addiction. The LP was produced again by Jarrad Kritzstein (Weezer, Lucie Silvas) and features guest appearances from Kelly’s father Tim who contributed pedal steel guitar and backing vocals Kasey Musgraves and Kelly’s sister. Notable tracks include: the uplifting gospel-tinged track “Hallelujah Anyway”; the reflective soft-spoken country song “Clean”; the bluntly honest song about how Kelly’s struggles affect those closest to him on “Changes”; the piano-tinged track about the pressure to do better on “Under the Sun”; the jangly track “Radio Cloud”; the ode his mother “Brave”; a song to his now ex-wife Kacey Musgraves “Alive”; and the song about fighting temptations when in recovery with “Mid-Morning Lament.” The critically acclaimed Shape & Destroy finds Kelly’s songwriting more focused and his musical arrangements more polished than its excellent 2018 predecessor Dying Star. Ruston Kelly’s Shape & Destroy is a lush and atmospheric album filled with sobering honesty, overcoming struggles, hope, family, and moving forward. – Written by JFelton
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