Album Review: Macy Gray’s Ruby Makes Her Shine

When you hear Macy Gray’s Ruby, you will 100% feel her spirit. Ruby is her most vivacious representation of herself, and why she has had such a long career. All versions of her, as an artist, have led to Ruby: a jazzy, Motown spin on R&B that has the soulful songstress crooning for love as if it is craving her back. 

From “Over You” to “But He Loves Me,” Gray’s voice is like a sponges absorbing and purging emotion through its porous quality. One of the reasons Macy Gray has garnered an undeniable fanbase is because you will not hear anyone that sounds like her. Vocally, she is like the soil of the earth; a rich bed fro which life grows, and life is growing in songs such as “White Man,” “Buddha,” and “Witness.” These songs have Gray, finally, being backed by her most creative soundscape; making her rhythms a grounded in richness and texture as her voice. In finally meeting the perfect instrumental for her own, vocal instrument, Macy Gray’s music is at its strongest.  
Macy Gray – Sugar Daddy

There is a vastness to Ruby’s rhythms that makes you want to Charleston in the musical Chicago. It turns Macy Gray into a Velma Kelly kind of character; unafraid to say she is not trying anymore to be loving without witnessing whether she is being loved. From “Jealousy” to “Sugar Daddy,” Gray shows that time pushes women to ask what they getting back. In our childhood, we are often told, as young ladies, what we cannot do compared to men and what we can do for them. Yet, time makes you unlearn or question such lessons because every human being has desires and dreams, even if based in relationships. We, eventually, want to receive, and not just be the one everyone can take from. Thus, reciprocity reigns in Macy Gray’s exuberant Ruby, which you can buy on September 21. Click Here.