Essentials: The Top 10 Ruston Kelly Songs

If people were asked to describe Ruston Kelly’s music, there are a few terms that might come up: americana, folk, or even alt-country, but there is one term that the South Carolina native prefers above all others, one uniquely him that he coined himself: dirt emo.

The official explanation of the genre, a term that Kelly loves so much that he’s even released two cover EPs under the title, goes like this: “Dirt Emo is having peripheral elements of folk, Americana, or country wrapped up in a confessional expression drawing heavily from bands in the Emo/Grunge/Pop punk scene”. As strange as it may sound at first, if you’re familiar with Kelly’s discography, it’s a more truthful reflection of who he is, with his personal, confessional style, than any of the general labels that might get stuck to him.

But whatever you want to call Kelly’s music, there is no doubt he creates magic, so here are what I consider to be 10 of his most essential tracks.

Number 10: ‘All Too Well’ from “Dirt Emo, Vol. 1” (2019)
Yes, you are right in thinking that this ‘All Too Well’ is the same song originally performed by Taylor Swift, co-written by Swift and Liz Rose and initially released on 2012’s “Red”. Kelly is, somewhat refreshingly, something of an unabashed Swift fan, and when he released his cover of ‘All Too Well’ on his first “Dirt Emo” EP in 2019, it was more of a deep cut from Swift’s back catalogue, a kind of “if you know you know” amongst Swift fans who often considered it her greatest song, only for it to become more mainstream and anthemic when Swift re-recorded it and released her ‘10 Minute Version’ in 2021. The great thing about Kelly’s version is that he doesn’t mess with the formula but still adds his own flair to it, including his signature vocoder harmonies. All we really need now is for Kelly to record his own ‘10 Minute Version’.

Number 9: ‘Michael Keaton’ from “The Weakness” (2023)
In 2020, Kelly separated from his wife, Kacey Musgraves, so when he finally announced his first album post-divorce would be 2023’s “The Weakness”, the last thing people were expecting was for the first promo single to be titled ‘Michael Keaton’ and for its subject to be accidentally getting high on a Delta 8 joint, but that’s what they got. Outside of the joy of its unexpectedness, it’s a fun snapshot of a moment in Kelly’s life that he managed to interweave with some of the experiences he was going through at the time being newly single: “I was headed back from east of Eden / She was headed back to East L.A. / The sun is coming up here, and I’m feeling / Like a bird out of a cage”. In case you’re wondering, Kelly reported on X/Twitter not long after the song was released that his agent called and told him that Michael Keaton himself heard the song and liked it, relaying to Kelly this piece of wisdom: “Tell him to be careful with that gas station weed”.

Number 8: ‘Under the Sun’ from “Shape & Destroy” (2020)
A song about persistence through the toughest of times, ‘Under the Sun’ gained its spot in this list in part because of how rousing its power is: “If it hurts either way / What’s the point in dragging it out?” Kelly asks, his voice strangled with emotion as he continues, “Let it fade under the sun / Don’t let me catch you crying in the twilight / It’s almost over / Brighter days still will come”. It’s a building, driving anthem to perseverance and facing your problems head-on that sustains its intensity for the duration of its three minutes 22 seconds length, and that’s a feat to behold.

Number 7: ‘Asshole (Demo)’ from “Asshole (Demo)” (2018)
Only released as a single in its original demo form, ‘Asshole’ stands out as perhaps the most straightforwardly autobiographical song in all of Kelly’s catalogue. “I blew over the line / He cuffed me and brought me in like a prize / I spit on the floor just to piss him off,” he begins in this rough tale of getting arrested for driving under the influence not long after his 2017 wedding to Musgraves: “My wife picked me up, and she gripped the wheel / ‘How dare you, who are you?’ and shit got real / She was crying, I was playing a game on my phone”, he confesses, “Tryin’ to think if there was any weed left at home”. The relationship may have ended in divorce, but at least this song remains as testament to Kelly’s unflinching truthfulness.

Number 6: ‘Let Only Love Remain’ from “The Weakness” (2023)
As far as tracks on “The Weakness” go, ‘Let Only Love Remain’ definitely falls into the more expected camp of songs when you’re looking at an artist releasing their first album after a divorce, although there is no anger or bitterness at the relationship’s coming to an end, just gratitude as the song unfolds with both maturity and an ethereal kind of grace: “In the summer of our dyin’ / Where everything changed”, Kelly laments about the breakdown of his marriage, adding beautifully that the couple left “what had to stay behind” them so that “only love remained”.

Number 5: ‘Just For the Record’ from “Dying Star” (2018)
You could technically call ‘Just For the Record’ a cover in the sense that another artist released their take on it before Kelly had the chance: Lucie Silvas, who co-wrote the song with Kelly and his frequent collaborator Jarrad K, released her version as a single in 2017 before it appeared on her 2018 album “E.G.O.”. Hers is a perfectly serviceable recording of the song with some lovely strings, but Silvas’s vocals will never capture the haunting, strangled regret that Kelly manages to convey when he sings, “Everything that you said about me is true / Just for the record I really loved you” are lines that hit even harder when you learn that in a sad portent for the future, the person providing the backing vocals is none other than Musgraves.

Number 4: ‘Cover My Tracks’ from “Dying Star” (2018)
In my humble opinion, not only is “Dying Star” one of the best debut albums ever produced, but ‘Cover My Tracks’ is one of the best openers. From the moment the drummer counts in, there is an innate weariness about the song, Kelly sounding like a man truly tired of living a life tied to addiction and the kind of misadventures it leads to: “It was a hard rain showing me the way / Up from here to the fire escape / I was caught stuck standing in the flames again”, but, in turn, there is a cautious but buoyant hope to the chorus that, in credit to Kelly’s songwriting skills, is only possible to appreciate when you’ve felt where he’s been before: “Well, these are the golden years / Thought I’d never find ’em / Or just watch ’em disappear / Into the echoes of all the older lovers / That still whisper my name around here”.

Number 3: ‘1000 Graves’ from “Halloween” (2017)
Released on his pre-“Dying Star” EP “Halloween” in 2017, ‘1000 Graves’ explores the unsettling sense of not belonging and the darkness of wandering aimlessly through addiction: “Maybe I was born inside a shadow / I’m always starving for the light / The only roads I seem to follow / Are the ones leading to the night” are to my mind, some of the best lyrics Kelly has ever written, and they become all the more relevant when you contrast them with his later admission that he’s “Sick of dying in these nights” and longs for stability and even marriage because he believes that love can save: “Takes the depths out of the darkness / So you don’t have to fall that far alone / So you don’t have to face it on your own”.

Number 2: ‘Brave’ from “Shape & Destroy” (2020)
‘Brave’ is a fantastic song in the way all the best Kelly songs are – completely raw and honest – but hey, if you don’t believe me, just think about the fact former US President Barack Obama included it on his prestige “Favorite Music” list in 2020. “Who am I, and how will I / Be remembered when I die?” Kelly asks with, even for him, shockingly vulnerable candour: “What will I leave behind? / Don’t give a damn what they may say / Hope my mama called me brave / In my weakest times”. It’s a reflection of his struggles with sobriety and trying to be a person he can be proud of, and that level of honesty is very brave indeed.

Number 1: ‘Mockingbird’  from “Dying Star” (2018)
If there is any Kelly song that might be considered his anthem, this one would be it. “Pretty wings you’re the prettiest thing / You’re like Parker Posey in a magazine / With faded jeans and a crop top back in ’93”, he begins, encapsulating such a wonderfully specific time in pop culture, but the song, written at 6 a.m. on the “edge of a bed” in a Dominican hotel, is more than that; it’s about a doomed relationship, one where you might think you’re saving each other, but in reality, you’re only making things worse: “I was a desert, honey, you were the sand / I was a bird, baby, you were the branch / And I flew into the blue and watched those flowers die”. “Hey, pretty little mockingbird / Keep singing them sad, sad songs”, goes the chorus, which will never sound better than if you get the opportunity to scream it aloud at a show along with a legion of other fans.