Rusko Has Lots of Songs

While Rusko’s debut album was over excitedly titled OMG his latest is a much more subdued and kind of uninspired Songs. Thankfully, Rusko is so on top of his game that it doesn’t matter what the heck he titles a record it’s going to be a hit. Like his debut album, Songs is so much more than just a dubstep album. Cramming speed garage, house, hip hop, reggae and enough bass rattling moments to test the speakers of anything less than 100,000 watts, Songs is diverse, deep, and an extremely danceable record. Rusko has once again proven himself to be a unique artist and this guy offers so much more than a bog standard dance record that he has to admired. He's imaginative, creative, and seems like he loves listening to tunes as much as he enjoys creating them.

Sounding at times like MJ Cole meets Diplo on vacation in Kingston, Rusko clearly gets the idea that good songs revolve around sequencing enough hooks, and in the case of dubstep, enough earth crushing basslines to destroy the world. The songs seem to be constructed around each bassline and layers upon layers of sounds, squiggles, and wobbles are then worked in to make the tunes here sound so thick that they physically weigh a ton. This is some heavy stuff in the best way possible and it's quite potentially the most punishing record you'll hear all year long. And yet despite that or because of it, Songs is a fantastically upbeat record that literally is all over the place, and as much as that's its strength it's also its one weakness. Songs literally heads off in twenty different directions and really wants to be everything to everyone. Some might see this as this records downfall but it's lack of a cohesive direction allows the record to spread it's wings and touch upon some of dubstep's greatest influences; see dub, garage, drum n' bass, and house. It might lack overall cohesion and sound like a bunch of potential singles crammed together rather than a consistent album, but when the songs are this good and this jittery it more than makes up for it.

From the piano house vibe of, "Somebody to Love," to the atmospheric washes of, "M357," Songs never loses sight of the dance floor. In fact, Songs is so upbeat and so high-energy that it will wear you down and wear you out. Brilliant, bombastic, diverse, and powerful, Rusko has created a classic, essential, must have, legendary dubstep album that once again shows that Rusko is dubstep royalty.