Ruth Ruth’s debut album Laughing Gallery is a slice of grinding ’90s grunge, complete with stop-start dynamics, crushing guitars and tortured vocals. While the band may have mastered the conventions of the genre — and they even play them with energy — they have failed to come up with enough distinctive, melodic songs to make the album anything more than a promising debut. [Laughing Gallery Rock was reissued in 1999.] – Stephen Thomas Erlewine