Success has been a long time coming for RØRY, but who else can channel four decades of hardship into a debut released at an age when many rockers are considering slowing down? The songwriter, social media activist, author and split-hair-aficionado channels a bared soul and unflinching honesty on ‘Restoration’ that fully explains why her last festival summer won her a ton of fan admiration along with the title of Best Breakthrough Act at the Heavy Music Awards. It’s a deeply personal album that at times feels like we’ve been eavesdropping on a therapy session but establishes RØRY as a practitioner of beautiful, painful ‘sadcore’.
She knows who her tribe are, and how to shred their heartstrings. ‘Restoration’ isn’t going to be for everyone, but that’s not a criticism; she has a groove she’s carved painstakingly with broken bottles that will resonate with those who have been told they’re a write-off for any one of a myriad of reasons. Throughout advance drop ‘In the Bible’, the “addict on her knees with her face towards the light” speaks to the “twenty million people taking anti-depressants”, promising that “everything you lost will be restored”. It’s a message of hope coming from someone who’s clawed their way back from rock bottom, punctuated with angelic vocals cutting through oppressive riffs. ‘SORRY I’M LATE’ pounds itself from the speakers as an affirmation that victory can come to all of us, no matter what barriers we’ve faced. One of her simpler tracks, it leans on chunky riffs and force of personality to deliver the message.
Self-exorcism involves confronting your enemies, even if they are yourself in different guises, and this process arches over ‘Restoration’. ’BLOSSOM’ aches with a need to prove that survival can turn to thriving through a chorus that rises to form an anthem. It’s also a track which shows RØRY contains multitudes, addressing a hidden “you”, who’s probably the demon of addiction. The character of her self -loathing coming to life takes centre stage as a sneering adversary on opener ‘if pain could talk, what would it say?’, a deceptively heavy track that jolts us upright to show the tortured vocalist’s range.
However, a lot of the record is much softer and confessional, a hug from someone who needed to receive a hug themselves. ‘One Drink Away’ is a shaking reflection on the fragility of sobriety with trap beats and acoustic guitar to soundtrack the power of walking a difficult path one day at a time. It’s also going to be the song to spark a “lighters up” moment across the general admission area when RØRY launches her sold out tour in the near future. Similarly, ‘Sherlock Holmes’ tenderly contemplates her love for someone unknowable while laden with a backpack of uplifting synth tones and wistful longing.
If you’ve grown to love RØRY already over the last couple of years, you might be disappointed by the lack of snarking on ex boyfriends and exploring her own outsider status that’s been as much of a feature of her sound as her ripped costumes are to her stage presence. But RØRY’s in a better place now, or at least a more contemplative one, and some emotions needed to be brought into the light to lay the ground for her to make the record she always wanted to. ‘Restoration’ is a powerful trip through a history both intimate and universal, a testament to the determination to flourish, and a compelling record from an unlikely star.
KATE ALLVEY