From the beginning, the new music of Ruuth is like the pure pouring of baptism.

“Gasoline” is not just an intro. The misty melody with echoing bass is celestial like finding a hidden pantheon or seeing tricolor aurora in the dark northland. Ruuth’s heavenly voice takes listeners somewhere out of the earth. The intro does a great job to impress the whole album for the remaining songs. I would gradually take the rain of this “gasoline” all day long. One of the perfect intros I’ve ever listened to. 1.15 minutes of blessing.

But who is Ruuth? Honestly, I don’t know. Her identity is mysterious. Because she doesn’t have her website and bio, I even don’t know where she is from. According to Wikipedia, “Ruuth is a Finnish surname”. As I observe her social media, maybe she is from Germany. Only I know is All My Friends is her debut EP. Her identity doesn’t matter. Hats off to the bright hope with high skill.

Ruuth’s music isn’t difficult to categorize, unlike finding her identity. It’s pop. To be more specific, Europop. But this is pop music you can’t dance. Ruuth wouldn’t need dancers at her concerts. This is pop music to listen carefully.

All My Friends is not a typical boring pop EP with similar songs. After an awaking uptempo song with the dynamic choruses (“Wake Up As You”), dark and lonely synthesized melodies follow but this song suddenly sparks with melodious hard rock guitar at its climax (“All My Friends”). “Lean In” is an interlude that, again, takes a perfect role as a bridge to the following dark song (“Her”) with its frosty cold melodies. “5am” is a song with mellow melodies turning into melancholic that has a contemporary French flavor. “Afterparties” has a similar fashionable mode with the previous “5am” but the uptempo version that is a nice choice as the last song. Melodies and compositions are simple but impressive. The organized track order is catchy to make listeners repeat the EP over and over…well, clearly, 7 songs aren’t enough for the complete entertainment. This EP is very short with only 17 minutes. Each song is so compact that it lasts 2-3 minutes. Maybe she should make the full-length album to impress her talent stronger by adding 3 more songs if she could afford a little more budget. This also means a new hidden talented heroine was born. Definitely much anticipated for her feature full album.

RELEASE DATE (US): 04/10/2020

OVERALL POINTS: 96/100

• Songs: ★★★★+3/4 
• Originality: ★★★★+1/2
• Thrills: ★★★★★
• Song orders: ★★★★★
• Vocal: ★★★★+1/2
• Background: ★★★★+1/2
• Sound: ★★★★★
• Production: ★★★★★
• Strong songs: “Gasoline (Intro)”, “Wake Up As You”, “All My Friends”, “Lean In (Interlude)”, “Afterparties”

EXTRA (NOT COUNTED TOWARD THE OVERALL POINTS)

• Title: C
• Album cover: A