Emma Ruth Rundle Breaks Down New Album These Killing Times Track by Track

Emma Ruth Rundle has just unleashed her sixth studio album, These Killing Times, via her own imprint Errant Child. In celebration of its release, the singer-songwriter has gifted Consequence with an exclusive track-by-track breakdown of the LP.

These Killing Times finds Emma returning to a full-band setup, giving the tracks a quiet-loud dynamic, with lyrics covering sociopolitical issues and personal reflections, as outlined in her song descriptions below.

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The album was co-produced by Sonny Diperri (My Bloody Valentine, Trent Reznor), and features a backing back comprised of Jess Gowrie (Chelsea Wolfe, Mrs. Piss), Troy Zeigler, Patrick Shiroishi, Nick Reinhart (Tera Melos), Gina Gleason (Baroness), Marissa Nadler, Lukas Frank (Storefront Church), and Amelia Baker (Cinder Well).

Emma Ruth Rundle will support These Killing Times with a pair of US tours this fall. First, she’ll perform solo as support for All Them Witches’ throughout October. Then she’ll embark on her own headlining tour in November and December with a full backing band. Tickets for her upcoming shows are available here.

Stream Emma Ruth Rundle’s new album These Killing Times and check out her track-by-track breakdown below. Order the album on vinyl or CD here.

“Powerless”:

“Powerless” was the last song I wrote for this album – it came very quickly and was almost a pure expression of the frustration and anger I felt after reading about Noam Chomsky’s involvement with Epstein – the bridges includes a reference to the story of John Henry and the image of the hammer – I fell in love with this idea and lyric by way of Gillian Welch’s song “Dream a Highway” – Lord, let me die with a hammer in my hand – like a prayer to never give up and never stop trying. I like the idea of the hammer as something which can destroy and create.

“God’s Picture”:

This was the first song I wrote for the album, and I wrote it during the insane fires that consumed many parts of LA in early 2025 — this while the genocide in Gaza was raging. Many of my friends were evacuating their homes all across the city and some even lost everything to fires. I had also just read the book Lapvona and was thinking about societal structures and the world we living in — who decides the policies that enable the global conditions we are living in and why? I was thinking about Manifest Destiny, and how modern capitalism is founded in imperial colonialism which was fundamentally tied to christianity. I was thinking about how powerful people throughout history seem to have this idea that they are directed by God to arrange the world as they see fit. Like 1984, this song images a world which the climate has collapsed and we the people are slaves to endless wars — and the chorus is sort of an anti-prayer to be free of western hegemony.

“Anvil”:

This is a song for the bitches, witches and queers, as I feel I can fall a little into all those categories. I feel safe speaking about the experience of being twisted and shaped by patriarchal systems. I am so angry and sick of it. I was reading some Plath and there is a line in one of her poems about the Alter of Shame. I guess there is a lot of reference to Christianity in my music. That is because we, in the western world, live with it in the background of everything, even if we aren’t religious or raised in the church. Christianity permeates out culture our subconscious, our laws and so on. I am a visual thinker and writer. I like to imagine pictures and scenes when I sing and play. In this song, I imagine an army of us exacting some kind of just revenge on these forces. I also like to imagine a big bright light curing the twisted nature of human hate and greed — feelings and ideas are layered and never just one thing.

“Catherine Wheel”:

The Catherine Wheel was a medieval torture device,  also called the breaking wheel. Look it up. I am likening living in the USA right now to being on one of those. This is an anti-fascist and anti-christian nationalist song. It’s about the cognitive dissonance that I felt between the world I thought we might move towards when I was young and hopeful and the one we are actually moving towards. This song is about American corruption and wishing that we had more of a radical resistance. I guess it’s somewhat satirical and sardonic in its tone. There is a reference to the Weather Underground that no one has caught yet. I have found myself feeling, “How can this be real?” And I am sure a lot of other people feel this way. Guess what — it’s real. What should we do about it? I guess its just a confessional song about how I have been feeling and what I wish could happen.

“Don’t Delay Heaven”:

A love song for the end times — I originally wrote this chorus for my dog, Red, as I was watching her running around in the grass. She only has three legs, so when she moves, she sort of hops around and her ears flap in a way that makes it seem like they are helping her — sort of fly. Like in slow motion — I think about slow motion flying in green fields and pure love and acceptance. I felt such love. I would do anything for her. And then I felt this love for all my friends and lovers, and I think I often feel out of place and have ideas about just not wanting to be anywhere. I like to imagine a great escape. I like to meditate on being free from pain — it’s a form of escapism. I love to imagine finding another person who sees me and who I see — unconditional love and how fortifying that might be. It would be nice to have that with a person. I happen to have it with a dog.

“Enough”:

This is another song like “Anvil” — I was thinking about “The Man Who Sold the World” — and the story of Elijah who was taken up into heaven. In my version of the story, Elijah is basically Elon Musk and gets torn into pieces by an angry and vengeful god. This guy just crashes a rocket into the moon — what the f**k are we doing here? And how sad and empty all this is. I think about the subjugation of humans — the raping of the world. The value in the forest only when it is cut down. How much more can any one person want, have or own? The sky opens up and rips this man to shreds.

“Human Kindness”:

The song is inspired by a line in Macbeth: too full of the milk of human kindness. It’s an evocative image. I was thinking about the climactic scene in The Grapes of Wrath during which a new mother who’s infant died is breastfeeding a feeble elderly man to keep him alive. The song is about love and hate and existential quandary. It’s about violence and tenderness which are two defining features of humanity — there is a sexual undertone to the song, as well. I think about how multifaceted and layered we all are and often wonder where and how it all began and if it is coming to head — to an end. I think about the fall of man.

“Oceans of Time”:

This song ultimate serves to being the listener into the dialogue by leaving the album with a question: What should we live for? Love? What kind of world do we wish to build? To live in? I know that this isn’t it… maybe we should think about where to go from here and how we get there? The production choices — to add the choir and have the song sort of dissolve at the end were very intentional — to leave off in the mist of wondering about everything.