Emma Ruth Rundle These Killing Times
Released Sep 18, 2026 Errant Child
Consensus forming 3 professional reviews Updated Sep 30, 2026
Broadly positive consensus
Consensus is still forming across 3 professional reviews. Emma Ruth Rundle's These Killing Times confronts catastrophe with a communal pulse, converting despair into furious, sometimes tender, collective music.
How ChoruScore worksCritics' Top Tracks
The songs critics returned to most
Human Kindness
3 critic mentions
“the closing duo of “Human Kindness” and “Oceans of Time”. Both ask hard questions and intend to inspire hope” — The Line of Best Fit
Powerless
3 critic mentions
“On opener "Powerless," she offers an image that feels like a mission statement for all her projects” — Pitchfork
God's Picture
3 critic mentions
“The presence of Patrick Shiroishi’s saxophone introduces another colour into Rundle’s increasingly expansive palette” — Beats Per Minute
Full critic consensus
Emma Ruth Rundle's These Killing Times confronts catastrophe with a communal pulse, converting despair into furious, sometimes tender, collective music. Across professional reviews critics note that the record is both dark and consoling, earning a 76.33/100 consensus score from three professional reviews and staking its claim through textured arrangements and a heightened sense of responsibility in the face of political and environmental collapse.
Reviewers consistently praise the expansive centerpieces that become the album's emotional anchors, naming “Powerless”, “Human Kindness” and “God's Picture” as recurring highlights, with “Enough” and “Catherine Wheel” also singled out for their muscular payoffs. Critics describe “Powerless” as a mission-statement opener that moves from piano fragility to grunge-tinged catharsis, while “Human Kindness” operates as an eight-minute, fuzzed-out dirge that nonetheless vibrates with life through harmonies and strings. “God's Picture” and “Enough” are noted for turning private desolation into communal reckoning, often via saxophone, sludge-metal heft or towering vocal layers.
The consensus emphasizes themes of hope and responsibility, human failure, and reconstruction - reviewers agree the record balances vulnerability with volume and trades solitary ruin for collaborative energy. Some critics temper praise by calling the work more accomplished than revelatory, but the prevailing view credits Rundle with reshaping darkness into purposeful music that feels timely and cathartic. For readers seeking a measured verdict on These Killing Times, the critical consensus suggests a compelling, if occasionally uneven, addition to her catalog and a record worth hearing for its standout tracks and thematic urgency.
Track Ratings
How critics rated each track, relative to this album (0-100). Only tracks that made critics feel something are rated.
Powerless
God's Picture
Anvil
Catherine Wheel
Don't Delay Heaven
Enough
Human Kindness
Oceans of Time
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What Critics Are Saying
Deep insights from 4 critics who reviewed this album
Critic's Take
Emma Ruth Rundle’s These Killing Times feels like a careful expansion of her world, where the best songs - “Powerless”, “Human Kindness” and “Catherine Wheel” - balance raw intimacy with swollen, tense textures. The review voice relishes the record’s ability to marry fragility and authority, noting that “Powerless” establishes tension immediately and a soaring chorus that marks it as a standout. “Human Kindness” is described as quietly devastating across its eight minutes, finding beauty in compassion, while “Catherine Wheel” twists into claustrophobic fury that echoes the album’s political unease. Ultimately the critic frames these tracks as proof that Rundle is at her peak, accepting darkness rather than dissolving it.
Key Points
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“Powerless” is best for establishing the album’s tense dynamics and a soaring, memorable chorus.
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The album’s core strength is its emotional continuity and textured heaviness that balances fragility with authority.
Themes
Critic's Take
Across These Killing Times Colin Joyce hears Emma Ruth Rundle trading solitary ruin for a roughhewn communal surge, highlighting the best songs as moments where collaboration unlocks unexpected vitality. He singles out “Enough” for its creeping opening and triumphant sludge-metal payoff, and names “Human Kindness” as a fuzzed-out dirge that nevertheless "vibrates with life" because of towering harmonies and strings. Joyce frames opener “Powerless” as a mission statement, noting its image of destruction and making - language that helps explain why these are the best tracks on These Killing Times.
Key Points
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The best song, "Human Kindness," transforms dirge into vitality through harmonies and strings.
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The album’s core strength is turning solitary despair into communal momentum and a sense of possible redemption.
Themes
Critic's Take
Emma Ruth Rundle's These Killing Times wears its political and ecological anxieties plainly, and the best tracks on the album are the ones that pair that urgency with muscular dynamics. The expansive “Anvil” and the stirring closing pair “Human Kindness” and “Oceans of Time” turn dread into something like a call to arms, which makes them the standout moments on the record. Matt Young's appraisal is measured but admiring, noting that the record is sometimes more accomplished than revelatory.
Key Points
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“Powerless” is the best song because its stark quiet-loud dynamics and two-word chorus concentrate the album's anger and vulnerability.
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The album’s core strengths are its political urgency, carefully arranged vocals, and the tension between vulnerability and volume.
Themes
Critic's Take
Emma Ruth Rundle's These Killing Times feels like an urgent, communal response to collapse, and the best tracks - “Powerless”, “Human Kindness” and “God's Picture” - show that shift most clearly. The reviewer's voice dwells on stormy dynamics and tender surprises, noting how “Powerless” erupts from piano into grunge-inflected catharsis while “Human Kindness” becomes the album's sprawling, dark centre. In between, “God's Picture” offers a hushed, mournful prayer that expands into something larger, the saxophone lending a strange beauty. The record's strength, the reviewer argues, is not abandoning darkness but changing how it responds to it, with communal arrangements that fortify the songs rather than dilute their intensity.
Key Points
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The best song, "Human Kindness", is the album's sprawling centrepiece that most clearly crystallises its emotional and musical stakes.
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The album's core strengths are its dark, communal arrangements and Rundle's ability to turn vulnerability into powerful, collective expression.