Lara Ruggles Premieres Haunting “Live From Midtopia” Music Video
There is so much to admire about “Live From Midtopia” and Lara Ruggles: her haunting lyrics and the pulse of her longing voice.
Tucson-based folk-pop artist Lara Ruggles unveils her music video, “Live From Midtopia,” which includes three songs from her upcoming album, Anchor Me, a look back at the aspects of love: failure, the magic of falling in love again, and the capability of saving love worth saving.
“This album represents a return to myself in a way,” Ruggles says. “I don’t expect the industry to be different than it is. I’m ready to put something a little more intimate and personal out there, and I don’t have everything in my world riding on whether or not this album breaks even or allows me to make a decent living. It’s freeing.”
Ruggles grew up outside of Tucson, surrounded by cattle ranches. Feelings of isolation led to songwriting. Later, she moved to Denver, where she toured the folk circuit and performed. In 2016, she returned to Tucson and started Sharkk Heartt, an electro-pop project with a different sound.
Recently, Ruggles found herself collecting and writing songs that were too intimate and personal for Sharkk Heartt. These songs resulted in Anchor Me, a twelve-track album revealing a delicious vulnerability. Three of the dozen tracks – “Lighthouse,” “While You Can,” and “Love Me Instead” – appear on “Live From Midtopia.”
“Lighthouse” travels on a lightly strumming guitar and gently graceful piano. Ruggles’ voice, captured live without digital manipulation, drifts on dreamy, evocative tendrils, imbuing the lyrics with poignant, aching surfaces.
Dipped in country-folk flavours, “While You Can” evokes more intense energy as Ruggles’ raw vocals give the lyrics urgent, cautionary savours. There’s a loose, frayed edge to both the music and Ruggles’ voice that makes the song a personal favourite because of its instinctual feel.
Almost nursery rhyme-like, the intro of “Love Me Instead” leads into a low-slung, almost prayerful folk melody dripping with an open yearning for love. Ruggle’s luscious vibrato infuses the lyrics with trembling desire and naked need: “Could you love me instead?”
There is so much to admire about “Live From Midtopia” and Lara Ruggles: her haunting lyrics and the pulse of her longing voice.
Lara Ruggles “Live From Midtopia” single artwork
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