Ruby Vroom is the debut studio album by American rock band Soul Coughing, released in 1994. The album's sound is a mixture of sample-based tunes (loops of Raymond Scott's "Powerhouse" on "Bus to Beelzebub", Toots and the Maytals, Howlin' Wolf, the Andrews Sisters, and the Roches on "Down to This", and a loop of sampler player Mark Degli Antoni's orchestral horns on "Screenwriter's Blues", among others). It also features guitar-based tunes like "Janine", "Moon Sammy", and "Supra Genius" and jazzy, upright-bass-fueled songs that often quoted other material—the theme from Courageous Cat on "Is Chicago, Is Not Chicago", Thelonious Monk's "Misterioso" on "Casiotone Nation", and Bobby McFerrin's cover of Joan Armatrading's "Opportunity" on "Uh, Zoom Zip". On September 12, 2024, the band announced on Jimmy Kimmel Live that a remastered 30th anniversary version of the album would be released on CD and vinyl, which includes bonus songs from the era.
The album sold approximately 70,000 copies, as of April 1996, according to Billboard.
Ruby Vroom is the debut album of Soul Coughing. As a whole this is a better album than Irresistible Bliss, but this one doesn't have a classic like "Super Bon Bon" and it's a bit too long. Still it is full of jazzy and blues rock music that is very pleasing to the ears.
This reminded me a bit of Cake, who I also liked a great deal from this era. Lots of interesting sounds had me several times thinking there was an odd noise in my house - but it was part of the song. I enjoyed this quite a bit!
Took a bit to ease into the neo-soul/Tom Waits foundation this LP builds upon, but once I got there I greatly enjoyed the sleazy, backroom clouded with cigarette smoke vibes. There’s just enough gritty rock instrumentation to drive the clubbier vocals and sax and give this LP a distinctly unique feel in a crowded field. Awesome these guys got back together this year, really enjoyed this album and would get tickets for the next round of touring.
The songs on here that hit get surgically implanted into your brain as permanent earworms until the day you die. Get ready to be hearing "A man drives a plane into the Chrysler building" as you're trying to fall asleep at 3AM.
But it's kind of a mixed bag over all. Probably too long and frontloaded for its own good.
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