Monday 5 August 2013

Caroline Rose - America Religious

The Poetry of Great Music

In many ways this is uncomplicated to review – Rose’s bright, natural qualities as an artist are heard immediately in the ease and confidence with which these Americana/folk songs are played and sung. Tunes are as already stated broadly folk-based - Americana or Indie for possible want of a prefix – and there are other obvious generic roots too, like the blues tinge of third Roll On which sounds familiar in the way I don’t need to know the precursor, just acknowledge there is a genuine skill in sounding so experienced as if heard before. Partner Jer Coons also takes credit for excellent engineering and production, but Rose’s vocal is key in its range [not a dramatic one in some virtuoso sense, but simply damn fine and good] as on fourth Here Comes the Rain, or – yeah I’m going to name – the Melanie-esque fifth Note Walking Home from Work, a song that recounts the daily grind of someone who sweeps the floors at a store and whose hardship is juxtaposed only by the awareness of that of others. Seventh Six Foot Woman is a country rocker with sass lyrically and musically, and ninth Notes From A Bedroom Upstairs is a sweet acoustic with violin track, the lyrics comprised it seems to me from a poem written as a stream of consciousness set of observations. Indeed, the lyrics/poetry deserves a reading and this can be done here. America Religious is one of the strongest albums I’ve heard from a female artist for some time.

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