Sinking the Eight Ball
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| Sinking the Eight Ball | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 23 September 1997 | |||
| Genre | Psychobilly | |||
| Label | Sub•Lime Records | |||
| Producer | Mike Knott Gene Eugene | |||
| Ruby Joe chronology | ||||
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| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Cross Rhythms[1] | |
| Cool Fools | |
| The Lighthouse | |
| Youthworker[2] | |
| CCM Magazine[3] | |
| 7ball[4] | |
| CBA Marketplace[5] | |
Sinking the Eight Ball is the debut album by Ruby Joe. Due to its topical content, the album was pulled from some Christian book stores.[6]
The album drew upon the production talents of Mike Knott and Gene Eugene. On this release the band has a rockabilly sound, somewhere between the Stray Cats and The Reverend Horton Heat,[2] or "like a rockabilly version of Mike Knott..."[3] Lyrically the album addressed hard issues such as racism ("Skin"), the underground church in China ("People Underground"), materialism and temptation ("Fat Cat"), New Age spiritualism ("Rock 'n' Roll & My Baby"), and internal spiritual battles with our sinful nature.[2][3][6]
In "Spiritual Heroin" Russinger deals with his own former speed addiction,[2] describing how Christ can fill the need created by addictions, which one reviewer described as a "slightly disturbing metaphor."[1] The album also deals with the victims of the Holocaust ("Death Train"),[4] and finally closes with "Let's Go", a "no holds barred celebration of salvation."[1]
One reviewer found the album to be on various tracks "cliché-ridden but vaguely worshipful", "weakly inspiring", and "shallow & dumb."[5] The reviewer went on to state that the attempt "to bring 1950s wholesomeness into today's moral morass" fell flat.[5]