Album review: RØRY – RESTORATION

RØRY has one hell of a history, a winding complexity of addiction, grief, and even an entirely different music career. Now six years sober with a life she never saw coming, debut album RESTORATION wrangles with all the demons she managed to conquer to get here.

Mixing a core of guitars and vocals brushed with Kate Bush-esque yodels with rap with trap beats, RØRY utilises the mediums that best suit the stories she’s trying to share, amping up the aggression when laying bare the frustrations of broken systems and isolation. Speaking from the point of view of inner pain on its opener, she sets us up for her replies on the following nine tracks.

Hold On interestingly guest-features RØRY as herself, Roxanne Emery - the name she’s also released music under. Here she digs into a trail of family patterns and tackles shame and blame head on, and as it segues into BLOSSOM, she embodies the metaphor of a seed determined to bloom and grow, almost as a way of revenge for those who doubted her potential.

SORRY I’M LATE is where the core of this album is most potently realised. Having turned 40 in October, RØRY questions if there’s ever such a thing as being a ‘latecomer’. It was never too late for her to get sober, to fight back, or to be the artist she always wanted to be. She pulls apart the social constructs that put expiry dates on women candidly, before asking ‘or am I right on fucking time?’.

RESTORATION is an especially poignant listen for anyone who has found themselves stuck in destructive cycles, but has worked on breaking them. It’s RØRY coming to realise that who she was was good enough all along, and it sets us up for more - what else is there to her, and where will she go now we’ve got to know her story? It’s just the start, and she’s right on time after all.

Verdict: 4/5

For fans of: Charlotte Sands, As December Falls, YUNGBLUD

RESTORATION is released on January 31 via SADCØRE.

Listen to RØRY on the Kerrang! In Conversation podcast.