Sinking the Eight Ball | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | 23 September 1997 | |||
Genre | Psychobilly | |||
Label | Sub•Lime Records | |||
Producer |
Mike Knott Gene Eugene | |||
Ruby Joe chronology | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Cross Rhythms [1] | |
Cool Fools | |
The Lighthouse | |
Youthworker [2] | |
CCM Magazine [3] | |
7ball [4] | |
CBA Marketplace [5] |
Sinking the Eight Ball is the debut album by Ruby Joe. Due to its topical content, the album was pulled from some Christian book stores. [6]
The album drew upon the production talents of Mike Knott and Gene Eugene. On this release the band has a rockabilly sound, somewhere between the Stray Cats and The Reverend Horton Heat, [2] or "like a rockabilly version of Mike Knott..." [3] Lyrically the album addressed hard issues such as racism ("Skin"), the underground church in China ("People Underground"), materialism and temptation ("Fat Cat"), New Age spiritualism ("Rock 'n' Roll & My Baby"), and internal spiritual battles with our sinful nature. [2] [3] [6]
In "Spiritual Heroin" Russinger deals with his own former speed addiction, [2] describing how Christ can fill the need created by addictions, which one reviewer described as a "slightly disturbing metaphor." [1] The album also deals with the victims of the holocaust ("Death Train"), [4] and finally closes with "Let's Go", a "no holds barred celebration of salvation." [1]
One reviewer found the album to be on various tracks " cliché-ridden but vaguely worshipful", "weakly inspiring", and "shallow & dumb." [5] The reviewer went on to state that the attempt "to bring 1950s wholesomeness into today's moral morass" fell flat. [5]