Caroline Rose
Superstar
New West
Listen Below
The first time I heard Caroline Rose’s music I was in a friend’s living room. The semi-annual art share she hosts was wrapping up and the roommate who had just returned home was egged on to play a song. She sat down with her guitar and the entire room came to life.
I went up to Rose afterward and told her how much I loved it. “It reminds me so much of the Violent Femmes,” I said.
“I used to tour with them,” she said and nodded. “Thanks.”
The next time I heard “Money” it was released as a single for her 2018 LP LONER. This time it was plugged in and lost all the char left by her hands grabbing at the neck of a guitar. LONER is full of songs I can’t get out of my head. My favorite LP of the year, it’s a record of satire, humor, and the knowing nod of a woman who won’t be what everyone expects her to be. I vibe with that. And I vibe with Caroline Rose.
Her third record Superstar is out this week. It’s a new, ambitious shade of red. The luminescent air surrounding her on the cover looks as if she’s wearing one of those clear Halloween masks. And it’s all on purpose.
“To me, the satire is in what we’ll do and put up with in order to be successful,” Rose explains in the album’s accompanying press kit. I wanted to make a story out of those parts of myself that are for the most part undesirable, then inject them with steroids.”
Across the record, we follow the main character as she stumbles upon fame after an accidental phone call from Hollywood. Watch the story play out in the video for the first single “Feel The Way I Want.”
Performing the majority of the album herself—synthesizers, the Rhodes, flute, harp, ukulele, percussion, keys, and the usual suspects bass and guitar—the hooks dig deeper than they did on Loner. Rose produced the record too. Her voice shines, reaching highs and lows with and without production. She’s totally in control.
Rose confides that Superstar is inspired by cult films from Mulholland Drive to the mockumentary dark comedy Drop Dead Gorgeous. As listeners, we’ve come a long way from her first full length, 2014’s I Will Not Be Afraid, an Americana record of folk and twang. Her evolution as an artist is the truth of discovery: what can an artist do when they let themselves ask all the questions.
“Two years ago I started touring with nothing, not knowing if I’d even have a career,” Rose admits. “Then all of a sudden we were playing to hundreds of people in a town I’d never heard of. The whole thing was fascinating. It got me thinking, just how much can you build from nothing?”
On the second single “Freak Like Me,” Rose stands up and shows us another side of herself. Her love is messy, “a brick through a broken window,” and “a skin-tight suit.” She’ll “weekend in Paris” on “Got To Go My Own Way.” Hell, the opening track is called “Nothing’s Impossible.” Rose wastes no time. Woven between lines of self-love and acceptance are snapshots of falling and being in love. She captures the gritty nature of intimacy and letting someone hold your hair back. It’s impossible to turn away.
I see Rose embodying this character contained in a “cinematic paradox.” She is organically revealing in her writing and it’s what keeps me coming back to her music. There’s an excitement in her voice. Superstar gets deeper into character, into Rose, on every track. From stomp-claps on “Do You Think We’ll Last Forever?” to synthesizers that nearly bottom out on “Command Z.” At the end, “I Took A Ride” is the longest track and, honestly, the most compelling. She signs off by showing us there’s so much more to come.
Superstar is full-contact pop music: percussive, bouncing, and passionate. It’s designed to loosen you up. If Rose was ever holding on, she let go long ago. And it’s time for you to, too.
Notable Tracks: "Feel The Way I Want" | “Freak Like Me” | "Got To Go My Own Way" | “Nothing’s Impossible”
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