Retro-inspired loose-leg trousers, eighties pop R&B melodies with warm guitars, lyrics featuring themes of love bolstered by emotional unrest, Ruel continues to sway audiences’ hearts, and there is no way he would get away from Katy Perry.

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This summer, the rising Australian pop singer released a continuation of his sophomore album Kicking My Feet.

In collaboration with household producers, which paved the way for Sabrina Carpenter, Eminem, Adele and Taylor Swift to name a few, Kicking My Feat & Screaming introduces a more unfiltered portrait of heartbreak and self-discovery.

“I knew pretty early on that I was going to have a hard time choosing the final track selection for Kicking My Feet. As the songs stacked up, I started seeing two different, almost polar opposite emotional attitudes being projected. With too many tracks to fit on one record, we split the songs into a two-part album,” he said, addressing different emotional POV as the core concept.

“Part 1 is full of the celebration of Love; the hyper-charged feelings, the butterflies, when you’re walking on air. Then in contrast, part 2 bares a much starker reality of Love; how it can make you fall flat on your face, break your heart, leave you in pieces. Basically, a less openly discussed narration of what love can do to you.”

On his journey of conquering a wider fanbase, the 23-year-old teenage dream kicked off his Kicking My Feet tour by co-joining Katy Perry’s European Summer Festival Tour.

Taking his dapper personality to work the European music markets, Ruel is a singer with a penchant for creative storytelling. But do his songs channel authentic experiences, or has being performative become the engineered stage-confessional technique to cash in?

In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, an Australian tabloid newspaper, the singer admitted to not having gone through any major breakups when producing Kicking My Feet & Screaming. “I am so fine, it’s all performative,” he said when questioned whether his private life is going smoothly. With complete assurance, Ruel further re-assured that his 6-year relationship with his girlfriend remains strong, and stated that the tale of a struggling artist is not the safest option to pursue.

Not from heartbreak or from lived traumatic experiences, the inspiration behind this summer release stems from friendships, working relationships, or moments where he felt cheated or betrayed.

In this creative approach, Ruel is not alone.

Sombr, Benson Boone, Artemas, and Djo, the most adored male musicians among Gen Z, do not deviate far from the comfort of their abode.

The cohort of these modern-day romantics seems to avoid the label of a struggling act in favour of a close-knit relationship experience that caters to the same generation that grew up without facing the drama of an external conflict. If a destination led previous performers, then a journey has become a chore.

Our today’s obsession with soft-artists might be well correlated to the algorithmically catered reels. 

This year, Psychiatric Times ‌published an article discussing how social media drives emotional numbing. Overexposure to violent content rewires the brain to normalise cruelty, resulting in apathy. 

Ruel, or any of the aforementioned acts, so to speak, do not produce albums that spark themes of violence. However, their avoidance of perpetuating the label of a struggling act is a rule their audiences accept. So, it’s probably not a big deal for musicians today if they’ve had a rough past. Because audiences couldn’t care less.

Another relevant example is Katy Perry’s Watch It Burn record release, which failed to resonate with much of her fanbase. Despite the extensive CGI and the risky stunts she performs in the music video, contemporary listeners seem to have moved on from overt drama. 

Perry is well-documented for achieving top-charting records with her heroically and dramatically charged ballads that come from authentic, life-changing experiences, with some songs inspired by real human tragedies she has personally witnessed.

Ruel is set to perform at CHALK venue in Brighton on 6 October, 2026.

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