Ruby Fields

With a healthy nod to the DIY punk and snarling college rock of yesteryear, Australia’s Ruby Fields deliver angst-fueled guitar anthems for the Gen Z set. Bandleader Ruby Phillips was born in Cronulla, a Sydney suburb, in 1998, and was writing songs before she was a teenager. She formed the band in 2016 and, the next year, uploaded Ruby Fields’ punchy debut single, “I Want,” a cathartic track about the confusion and contradictions inherent in constructing a teenage identity; it swiftly surged to national attention. In the years since, Phillips has expanded the group’s sound and scope with 2018’s Your Dad’s Opinion for Dinner and 2019’s Permanent Hermit. While keeping her heart decidedly on her sleeve, she unpacks her growing fears on 2018’s slow-building “Dinosaurs” and languishes in a hangover over the melodic yet combustible jangle of 2020’s “Pretty Grim.”