Ruination – Sick Richard (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

If you want an idea of what rock music, for want of a better term, sounds like in the modern, non-tribal, post-genre world, then Sick Richard is a great place to start. And Ruination, their latest one, tells you a lot about music made by people who don’t worry about musical boundaries, the limits of genre identity, rules and established modus operandi.

I worry that such an intro makes them sound unfocused and overly experimental; nothing could be further from the truth. It’s just that they gather so many sonic shiny things around them, like magpies who had somehow learned to play instruments, that their music blends all manner of sounds and styles that aren’t often found hanging out together.

Ruination is a heady blend of genres, rock, indeed, but rock of a more post-punk nature than the conformist, mirror-gazing, self-important sound that alt-rock has become. It is a wonderfully pop-aware song too; the verses groove along brilliantly, building to infectious, punchy, stomping, almost lyricless choruses. Less singalong, more mosh inducing. It is also infused with no small amount of punk swagger and attitude but, again, rises above the cliches and counter-creativity that the genre was cursed with.

I love it; it’s the perfect blend of muscle and melody, groove and grit and a brilliant example of music made without the boundaries and borders of previous eras. It’s not rock or pop or punk or indie; it’s not music that either looks backwards for inspiration too much or worries overly about creating something groundbreaking or revolutionary, content, it seems, to be original and different, simultaneously breathtakingly fresh yet reassuringly familiar. It’s not music that is particularly mainstream or resolutely underground. It is all of those things and so much more. But, most importantly, it is the sound of now, music made for the moment. This moment!