'Fight Softly' is the third album by New Zealand's pop masters The Ruby Suns. Ryan McPhun (their prime mover) has the kind of voracious musical mind that cites as equal influences '80s/'90s New Jack Swing and modern Angolan kuduro, Fleetwood Mac and Britney Spears, Brazilian tropicalia and Argentinean cumbia. He's the kind of diligent, meticulous soul that spends days hunched over a laptop in a tiny rented studio in Auckland, NZ just to perfect a sequenced drum track (mission accomplished). And Fight Softly is the kind of head-spinning combination of big-picture vision and sumptuous detail that only comes from an artist with an urgent need to express all the stuff he's seen. And you can dance to it!
California-born (and NZ citizen) McPhun took childhood trips to New Zealand and finally made Auckland home in 2003. Though he soon started playing with Kiwi indie darlings The Brunettes, he'd been making his own music for years—four-track bedroom stuff that mixed his faraway vocals with effects-laden guitar, synths, and all manner of field-recorded samples. With his own new band, Ryan McPhun and The Ruby Suns, McPhun recorded and released his first album for NZ label Lil' Chief Records. By the time its follow-up, Sea Lion, was ready, the foreshortened Ruby Suns had gained a college following in New Zealand and toured Australia with The Shins and the UK with Field Music, among others. The album came out on Sub Pop in early 2008 and landed on various best-of lists that year.
And for a few summer months The Ruby Suns landed in Seattle. There they played Sub Pop's not-so-humble 20th anniversary festival and began work on Fight Softly. "Mingus and Pike" is about their temporary Victorian abode and its happy-go-lucky pit bull mascot Mingus; “Cranberry” captures a day trip to Cranberry Lake, a dream of a swimming-hole 90 minutes from Seattle on Fidalgo Island. The former is beat-buzzed bedroom R&B swathed in reverb while the latter is part tequila-drunk marching band, part Eastern Bloc candy rave.
In the spring of '09, The Ruby Suns took a whirlwind tour of Europe that included 10 days at a friend's spread outside Szeged, Hungary. McPhun and friends Bevan Smith (Signer, Aspen, Skallander) and Matthew Mitchell (Skallander, Muriel Tsains) spent their time devouring veggie pizzas and jamming, improv-style, in an old farmhouse. These sessions didn't make it to Fight Softly as-is but were a springboard into new ideas McPhun brought back to his Auckland studio.
Like "Closet Astrologer," a song that started in Hungary and concluded, vaporous and Vangelis-like, in New Zealand. Or "How Kids Fail," a multi-movement epic that sounds like a post-techno hymn and nods to How Children Fail, John Holt's groundbreaking book on the general out-of-touch-ness of the public education system. "Haunted House" bounces on a pitch-shifted vocal sample and bubbly synth line,
simultaneously lush and minimal. "Cinco" and "Dusty Fruit" share a similar digital-tropical soul.
This is where Fight Softly veers from the path set by its predecessor. Thematically, it's not as wide-eyed or lighthearted, picking apart the relationships faced as we pass through the world—with our surroundings, each other, ourselves. Sonically, it remains as beat-centric, though these beats are deliciously artificial—stretched and compacted and distorted beyond recognition. Melodies are scuzzy and digital, not many guitars strummed or basses plucked. McPhun's soulful upper-register croon, swallowed into the mix, replaces group chants and full-throated singalongs. Rather than an album of clearly-drawn influences, Fight Softly is a unique, inscrutable synthesis, more itself than anything else.
Jump In
The Ruby Suns Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Don’t know how
We’ll let it be
You know when it’s only about
But forever
That’s when I asked you about
Don’t look that away
Won’t you remain in the dark
I didn’t leave but for a single
You’ll only know if you’ll try
I hold my breath and jump in
When we reach the air up above
Don’t know how
But I replace
We took off our clothes without a care
We couldn’t threw but it rose, this hell
To live by
Won’t you remain in the dark
I didn’t leave but for a single
You’ll only know if you’ll try
I hold my breath and jump in
When we reach the air up above
No one can hold you down
When you’re with me
Wherever you are, I will come
I’m in need of a fellow student
I looked in our future, I couldn’t look far
I can’t live it again
You come here if you wanna die
It’s in the happy life
I won’t lay low if I’ll try
I hold my breath and jump in
The Ruby Suns’s song Jump In speaks of taking a leap of faith and facing the unknown. The song revolves around the idea of letting go of fear and embracing the present moment. The lyrics, “When we reach the air up above, don't know how, we’ll let it be,” suggest that even though we might not have control over what is to come, we can choose to surrender ourselves to the universe and have faith in what lies ahead.
The line “Won’t you remain in the dark, I didn’t leave but for a single,” implies that hiding from the truth and living in denial won’t lead to any growth. The singer is urging someone to step out of the darkness and take a chance on finding something or someone new. The chorus of the song repeats the line, “I hold my breath and jump in,” which is a metaphor for taking risks and diving into new experiences wholeheartedly.
The overall theme of Jump In is about the courage to face the unknown and the willingness to take risks. It’s a reminder to live in the present moment and embrace what life has to offer. The chorus of the song perfectly encapsulates the message: “When we reach the air up above, no one can hold you down, when you’re with me. Wherever you are, I will come, I’m in need of a fellow student. You come here if you wanna die, it’s in the happy life. I won’t lay low if I’ll try, I hold my breath and jump in.”
Line by Line Meaning
When we reach the air up above
As we rise higher, I am unsure of what to expect
Don’t know how
I am uncertain about what is to come
We’ll let it be
We will simply allow things to unfold
You know when it’s only about
You understand when something is truly important
But forever
This significance will last for an eternity
That’s when I asked you about
This is when I inquired of you
Don’t look that away
Please do not turn your gaze from me
Won’t you remain in the dark
Will you stay unaware of the truth?
I didn’t leave but for a single
I was gone only for a moment
You’ll only know if you’ll try
You can only discover if you take the risk
I hold my breath and jump in
I have the courage to take the leap
But I replace
I take the place of something else
We took off our clothes without a care
We shed our inhibitions and let ourselves go
We couldn’t threw but it rose, this hell
We were held back, but now we rise above a difficult situation
To live by
This is the way we choose to exist
No one can hold you down
No one can prevent you from soaring
When you’re with me
As long as we are together
Wherever you are, I will come
No matter your location, I will find you
I’m in need of a fellow student
I desire someone who shares my journey
I looked in our future, I couldn’t look far
I tried to envision our future, but could not see far ahead
I can’t live it again
I cannot repeat the past
You come here if you wanna die
This is a dangerous place, and only those willing to risk all should enter
It’s in the happy life
True happiness is found through daring experiences
I won’t lay low if I’ll try
I will not hesitate to pursue my desires
I hold my breath and jump in
I am willing to take the plunge
Lyrics © OBO APRA/AMCOS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind