Play

Play is the eighth studio album by British recording artist Shell Ruin. It was released by Fusion Records on September 28, 2015. The album served as Ruin’s first new material in four years.

A complete musical departure from her previous studio albums Original Doll (2010) and Panic Station (2011), Play is characterised by its references to 1970s and early 1980s disco, as well being influenced by contemporary R&B and pop music. The album has an overarching disco influence whilst retaining its pop sensibilities. Ruin was careful not to try and remake music from past, instead paying tribute towards artists like Prince, Chic and Giorgio Moroder. Ruin was also inspired by Grace Jones, particularly the disco albums she released in the late 1970s (namely Portfolio and Fame).

Contemporary critics lauded the album, who complimented its musical direction, particularly praising its individuality and nostalgia for the 1970s. Other critics compared the album to the work of contemporary artists like Miami Horror and Blood Orange, and respected Ruin's ability to reposition herself in the pop landscale in 2015, a decade after the release of her debut album.

Play is Ruin's most commercially successful to date, debuting at number one in its first week on the official albums chart. In April 2016, the album surpassed a million units sold and the following month the album was certified diamond by the Official Charts Company. The album was preceded by the single "Feel Alive", which was released as the album's lead single on September 21, 2015. The album yielded three more Top 5 singles - "Blue", "Dancing on Air" and "Lucid Dreams". Ruin embarked on the Playroom World Tour in 2016, her first world tour since 2011 and her highest-grossing live endeavor to date.

Background and development
In 2011, Ruin released her fifth album, Panic Station, to poor critical and commercial success. In the aftermath of the album's failure, Ruin felt disillusioned with the music industry and claimed to suffer with writer's block. Ruin became known as a recluse in the media, rarely being seen out in public. In 2012, she met media mogul Mark Saint James and fell pregnant after two months of dating. The pair married in Italy while Ruin was pregnant. Saint James filed for divorce six months later, citing "irreconcilable differences".

Following her divorce, Ruin was left suffering with post-natal depression and experienced financial difficulties having not had a hit single for four years. She met with friend and collaborator Alesha, whom she hadn't spoken to since 2011. Having experienced depression herself and recently staged a successful comeback with her album Alesha, Alesha encouraged Ruin to return to music. The pair began recording in April 2015 and the album was complete by August.

Concept and artwork
A complete departure from her previous album, the album includes influences of 1970s and 1980s disco, as well as house and R&B music. Play has an overarching disco influence, while trying not to remake music from past, instead paying tribute towards artists like Donna Summer, Chic and Giorgio Moroder. Ruin and Alesha had initially wanted to make an album with a cohesive disco sound, but later recorded songs with a more contemporary R&B influence as well as elements of house and electronic music. The album includes themes of love, heartbreak and surviving hardship. Ruin made a conscious decision not to focus on themes of fame and religion, though the album does include these themes in several songs. Ruin wrote mainly of her ex-husband's infidelity, their break-up and getting over heartbreak.

The album's title came to fruition in early 2015 during recording sessions with Alesha. The title Play (stylized as a 'play' symbol) was written on the front of a notebook that Ruin used to write lyrics. Ruin and Alesha would refer to the project as Play during recording sessions and in discussions regarding the album. The album was presented to Fusion Records in July 2015 as a self-titled project, however Ruin was encouraged to change the title to avoid similarities to Alesha's self-titled 2014 album. Ruin agreed and reverted back to referring to the album as Play.

The artwork for Play was overseen by London-based design studio Big Active, who were responsible for all of Ruin's album branding and packaging from 2007 onwards. Ruin approached the firm in May 2015, revealing that she would be releasing a new studio album within the year. Ruin played twelve unmixed songs to creative designers Mat Maitland and Markus Karlsson, in order for them to conjure up a visual aesthetic for the album. The pair immediately picked up on the album's disco influences, and approached Ruin some weeks later with an idea to pay homage to legendary disco artists such as Donna Summer and Diana Ross for the artwork, with the packaging design being a tribute to 70s album sleeves. Ruin disliked the idea and found it "out of touch", fearing that the concept would appear dated to a new generation of music buyers. Ruin proposed that the artwork should instead be "futuristic" and "post-millennial", with vibrant photography and minimal design except for contemporary, clean fonts and usage of the 'play' symbol which became a prominent part of the album's branding.

The album cover was designed by Mat Maitland and Markus Karlsson, with creative input from Ruin. In a discussion with the designers, Ruin expressed that she sees each of her albums in a particular colour, and that Play was the colour blue. Upon learning this, the photoshoot was given an prominent blue colour scheme which is featured on the album cover and throughout the packaging. There is coincidentally a song entitled "Blue" on the album which the designers were unaware of while conceptualising the artwork. The initial standard edition cover was a photograph of Ruin standing in front of a bed mattress, with no text other than the 'play' symbol. Ruin's record label felt that too much time had past for Ruin's name not to appear on the cover, and ordered for the standard edition to feature a headshot of Ruin with her name and the album's title.

Critical reception
Play received generally positive reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 80, based on 28 reviews. Gary Mullholland of The Observer‍'​ lauded the album as "a sumptuous 12-track, all-killer-no-filler, electro-disco gem", adding that its "bubbling, sensual, and soulful glitterball gems effortlessly tap into the perennial glory of feeling lost and lonely at a disco at the end of the world." Emily Mackay of Yahoo! Music expressed that on Play, Ruin "melded the two sides of her history much more seamlessly; four-to-the-floor pop belters mix with touches of electronic and lyrical darkness to make one of the pop albums of the year." Keith Caulfield from Billboard commented that Play is a "Shell Ruin crowning herself Queen of the dance floor." Stephen Thomas Erlewine from Allmusic commented that Play is the first album where Ruin sounds like a veteran musician since she created the record for "the dance clubs or, in other words, Shell Ruin's core audience." Alan Braidwood from the BBC commented that "[t]his is the most commercial album Ruin has made in ten years and it's magic." David Browne from Entertainment Weekly noted that for "all its pretenses of being giddy and spontaneous, though, Play is rarely either." Peter Robinson from Observer Music Monthly declared that the album ranks alongside Ruin's other albums like The Dirty Is Done (2007) and Never Stop (2009). He credited producer Alesha for the album, noting that "Play clearly wouldn't exist without Alesha's input, but it's Shell who steals the show." Stephen M. Deusner from Pitchfork Media noted that with the album "Shell again reinvents herself, and it appears she's nearly lapped herself."

Thomas Inskeep from Stylus Magazine stated that the album is "Ruin's most purely pop-driven album since The Dirty Is Done" and "easily her finest effort since Never Stop." Kelefa Sanneh from The New York Times called the album "the sound of the future." Christian John Wikane from PopMatters.com commented that the album "proved that Shell Ruin is still a vital force in the ever-expansive landscape of popular music." Joan Morgan from The Village Voice noted that "[w]ith Play, Ruin at long last finds her musical footing. Easily dance record of the year, Play is an almost seamless tribute to the strobe-lit sensuality of Studio 54". Stylus Magazine's Dan MacRae found that "Play knows how to squeech and squelch in the proper places, while touches of cowbell, beatboxery, and the occasional Prince styled riff all get sprinkled in accordingly." Sal Cinquemani from Slant Magazine was impressed with the album and said that "Ruin, with the help of Alesha, [...] has succeeded at creating a dance-pop odyssey with an emotional, if not necessarily narrative, arc — and one big continuously-mixed fuck-you to the art-dismantling iPod Shuffle in the process." He compared the album to Alesha's self-titled studio album, saying "Comparisons to Alesha's own discofied comeback album from 2014, are inevitable".

Commercial response
Play entered the official albums chart at number one, with 118,655 copies sold in its first-week of sale. This marks the highest first-week sales frame for Ruin, and makes Play her first number one studio album in ten years. The album sold an additional 84,955 copies in its second week, falling one place to number two behind Syde Wolfe's Adore. Play has sold 203,610 copies in total after two weeks on the official albums chart.

Track listing

 * 1) "This Is My House" (with Alesha and Syd Wolfe)
 * 2) "Feel Alive"
 * 3) "Blue"
 * 4) "Dancing on Air"
 * 5) "Tokyo"
 * 6) "Future Lovers"
 * 7) "Vultures"
 * 8) "Night Vision" (featuring Paul)
 * 9) "Lucid Dreams" (featuring Kenya)
 * 10) "Motel Nights"
 * 11) "Music On"
 * 12) "Last Days of Disco"


 * Target deluxe edition bonus tracks
 * 1) "Unloveable
 * 2) "Foreign Language"
 * 3) "Vultures" (Voice Memo to Alesha)
 * 4) "Lucid Dreams (Voice Memo to Alesha)
 * 5) "Tokyo" (Voice Memo to Alesha)


 * Notes
 * "Dancing on Air" contains an a sample of "Old Love/New Love" by Twin Shadow in its outro.
 * "Blue" contains a sample of "Cellophane (So Cruel) by Miami Horror.
 * "Future Lovers" contains a spoken monologue sampled from "Modern Love" by RuPaul.