“Ruby,” by Kaiser Chiefs, was a major hit in 2007—and deservedly so. It reached No. 1 in the United Kingdom, although it never became quite as inescapable in the United States.
The song wastes almost no time establishing itself. A sharp guitar figure starts the momentum, Ricky Wilson delivers the verses with barely contained impatience, and everything builds toward a chorus that seems designed for thousands of people to shout together.
We never learn very much about Ruby. The lyrics offer emotional fragments—romance, frustration, desire and resistance—rather than a conventional story. But that lack of detail helps the song: Ruby can become whoever the listener imagines, while her name becomes one of the decade’s most irresistible vocal hooks.
The official video doesn’t entirely do the recording justice, and its brief interruption near the end breaks the momentum for no good reason. Fortunately, the song itself never loses that momentum.
“Ruby” is one of those songs I will almost always let play when I encounter it on the radio. Sometimes a chorus is simply too good to resist.