The Artist: Ruth
Ruth was a short-lived French project led by Thierry Müller. One album. No gigs. Almost no trace.
Polaroïd/Roman/Photo slipped out in 1985 with barely a ripple. No big label. No fanfare. Just a few thousand vinyl copies floating through Europe like secret messages. Then nothing.
Decades later, collectors found it. DJs started spinning it in underground clubs. Archivists started to call it a lost coldwave masterpiece. And slowly, Ruth attained the cult status they deserved all along.
The band never came back. They didn’t need to. The record said everything.
The Record: Polaroïd/Roman/Photo (1985)
This album doesn’t open - it flickers into life. Like a neon sign in the fog.
Minimal synth, tight drum machines, clipped basslines. The production is clean, almost clinical - but the tone is distant, restrained and quietly emotional.
The title track is the centrepiece. Cold and melodic, with a driving rhythm and a vocal delivery that’s flat, but never lifeless. It repeats and repeats, but never feels static. There’s a tension in the simplicity.
Mots is slower. Spoken-word vocals drift across sparse beats and echoing synths. It’s dry, deliberate, slightly disorienting. It doesn’t move forward - it circles.
Tu M’Ennuies brings sharper contrast. A faster tempo, jagged guitar, more agitation in the delivery. The drums push harder. It feels like something is trying to break through the surface.
Other tracks play with form - melodic lines appear, then vanish. Patterns fracture. Ruth never fully lean into pop, but never abandon it either. There’s always a hook, buried just deep enough.
The record feels self-contained.
Unconcerned with genre, uninterested in approval.
And what could be more French - or effortlessly cool - than that?
Start With:
- Polaroïd/Roman/Photo – The cult classic
- Mots – Spoken-word minimalism
- Tu M’Ennuies – Agitated, icy and urgent