RÜFÜS DU SOL’s new album, Inhale / Exhale, feels like a sonic landscape as vast and unpredictable as the lives that shaped it.
The band’s fifth album finds them imbuing their emotional core with even more depth while chasing the horizons of what their music can become. After the dust of the pandemic settled, the trio, who found themselves now scattered between the sunny shores of San Diego and Miami, chose to rebuild.
And in doing so, they found creative freedom like never before, leading to the perfect storm of atmospheric electronica. Inhale / Exhale is akin to the release of a long-held breath—a rush of sound that moves from intimate whispers to roaring crescendos.
c/o Press
Opening with “Inhale” and “Lately,” they waste no time pulling you under. The tracks pulse with vibrant synths as though they’ve fed their sound through a prism. Lyrically, they delve into familiar territory with themes of love as salvation and a means to destruction alike.
That emotional duality threads the album, but nowhere is it seemingly more apparent than in “Pressure.” The band builds tension like a ticking time bomb, layering distorted synths and jagged percussion to create a slow-building catharsis. The song is mechanical, but in that restraint lies its brilliance. Unafraid to confront the weight of disconnection, it’s a track that mirrors the band’s own serpentine journey to influence.
But even as they push deeper into these thematic territories, RÜFÜS haven’t lost their gift for crafting festival anthems, either. “Music Is Better” channels pure, hands-in-the-air euphoria, built on a foundation of lush synth layers and uplifting percussion. It’s a celebration of the kind of connection evoked by endless sunsets and twinkly summer nights, yet beneath that surface-level bliss lies a deeper reflection on the power of music to heal and unite—an unspoken theme that runs throughout the project.
Elsewhere, there’s moments in Inhale / Exhale, like in “Edge of the Earth,” where you can almost feel the weight of the band’s geographical separation. But instead of fracture, it’s given the album a sense of vastness. There’s a certain kind of restlessness that speaks to the endless flights and temporary studios in Ibiza, Austin and LA where the album was born. In these scattered moments, the group managed to reconnect—not just with each other, but with the unfiltered sense of creativity that’s always defined their music.
As the album draws to a close with “Exhale,” it’s as if the whole journey collapses in on itself, marking a moment of quiet reflection while reminding us that even in the loudest storms, there’s always stillness to follow.
Listen to Inhale / Exhale below and find the new album on streaming platforms here.
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