Sinking the Eight Ball

Sinking the Eight Ball is the debut album by Ruby Joe. Due to its topical content, the album was pulled from some Christian book stores.^[6]

Sinking the Eight Ball
Studio album by Ruby Joe
Released	23 September 1997
Genre	Psychobilly
Label	Sub•Lime Records
Producer	Mike Knott Gene Eugene
Ruby Joe chronology
Sinking the Eight Ball (1997) Hot Rod Deluxe (1999)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Cross Rhythms[1]
Cool Fools
The Lighthouse
Youthworker[2]
CCM Magazine[3]
7ball[4]
CBA Marketplace[5]

The album drew upon the production talents of Mike Knott and Gene Eugene. On this release the band has a rockabilly sound, somewhere between the Stray Cats and The Reverend Horton Heat,^[2] or "like a rockabilly version of Mike Knott..."^[3] Lyrically the album addressed hard issues such as racism ("Skin"), the underground church in China ("People Underground"), materialism and temptation ("Fat Cat"), New Age spiritualism ("Rock 'n' Roll & My Baby"), and internal spiritual battles with our sinful nature.^[2][3][6]

In "Spiritual Heroin" Russinger deals with his own former speed addiction,^[2] describing how Christ can fill the need created by addictions, which one reviewer described as a "slightly disturbing metaphor."^[1] The album also deals with the victims of the Holocaust ("Death Train"),^[4] and finally closes with "Let's Go", a "no holds barred celebration of salvation."^[1]

One reviewer found the album to be on various tracks "cliché-ridden but vaguely worshipful", "weakly inspiring", and "shallow & dumb."^[5] The reviewer went on to state that the attempt "to bring 1950s wholesomeness into today's moral morass" fell flat.^[5]

Track listing

1. "Skin"
2. "Within"
3. "Childhood Love Song"
4. "Death Train"
5. "Fat Cat"
6. "Rock 'N' Roll and My Baby"
7. "Spiritual Heroin"
8. "Rocket Ship"
9. "Studio, No. 5"
10. "People Underground"
11. "Tongue Is Numb"
12. "Let's Go"