Editor’s Note: The Albumism staff has selected what we believe to be the 110 Best Albums of the 2010s, representing a varied cross-section of artists, genres, and styles. Click “Next Album” below to explore each album in the list or for easier navigation, view the full introduction & album index here.
LUCY ROSE | Something’s Changing
Communion (2017)
Selected by Justin Chadwick
Produced by Tim Bidwell, Something’s Changing’s eleven compositions sound like the album that Lucy Rose always wanted to craft, but was too stifled to ever fully explore. Although both excellent in their own right, her first two albums—2012’s Like I Used To and 2015’s Work It Out—at times sound as if they were calculated attempts to seduce radio and mass audiences. Something’s Changing, on the other hand, feels considerably more natural, with a profoundly more palpable intimacy and earnestness unencumbered by corporate visions of airplay and chart compatibility.
From the opening moments of the brief and sparse intro that begins with Rose’s refrain that “it’s just a song” wrapped within her crystalline and comforting falsetto, it’s evident that this is not just another dime-a-dozen, singer-songwriter ego trip of an album. Much to the contrary, the ten songs that follow are far more than just songs and instead coalesce to present an artist striving toward the height of her creative powers, while preserving her integrity and sense of self-awareness.
An album of undeniable grace and unequivocal beauty, Rose’s third studio affair suggests that something had indeed changed in her during the songwriting and recording process, and we the listeners were all the better for it.
LISTEN & WATCH:
