Esther Rose
Want
**** out of *****
The Santa Fe, NM based singer-songwriter Esther Rose's fifth album Want, on New West Records, is a intoxicating mix of dramatic folk, enchanting vocals, powerful lyrics and stout rocking. Rose's honest style and strong musicianship leads to an album that sticks around in the mind and ears long after it has finished spinning.
Want is bookend by the title track and "Want Pt 2". The opener starts with easy swaying strums before big drums and an almost modern pop chorus augmented by weepy strings all around a wish-list from Rose making for enigmatic start. The closer is more straight ahead with building strums and direct singing, proving Rose can be quirky or more direct and still succeed.
Rose's band is solid throughout as she plays with Gina Leslie - bass, vocals, John James Tourville - pedal steel, concert drum, Kunal Prakash - guitar, piano, bass six, rain stick, Howe Pearson - drums, percussion, piano, vocals, Ross Farbe - guitar, synth, organ, piano, percussion, vocals. Unlike a lot of folk acts that go softer, the players hit heavy and hard, giving Rose a dense musical support to leap off from.
Rose allows the songs to musically and lyrically travel where they want to go, which can lead to some exciting and unexpected places. "Rescue You" starts with an easy beat but tough lyrics and ominous clanging lends heft and horror to the story while "Messenger" feels out of Stevie Nix's playbook with a sense of hippie folk mystery.
Welcoming two guests, Rose plays it fairly direct on both the roots rock grooving "tailspin" (ft. Video Age) and the excellent folk duet "Scars" (ft. Dean Johnson). Both winningly showcase her talents, but Rose seems to want to keep things slightly off kilter the rest of the album. Swirling guitars and vocals float around a sturdy low end and noiserock flashes during "The Clown" which dissolves directly into a piano based exhale of "Color Wheel".
There are tales regarding hard living and narcotics that are densely layered as "Had To" contemplates drinking around fantastically echoing guitar and "Ketamine" does the same for drugging with heavier rock undertones. That meaty rock backbone at times distinguishes Want, allowing Roses vocals to go from breathy to falsetto with ease. "New Bad" sums up her style on this album well with deep bass, hard hitting drums, defiant lyrics, and huge swelling sounds that march to freedom.
A unique slice of dynamic roots rock, Want finds Esther Rose following her muse to light/dark aspects of her mind/heart with equal success.
____________
Support the artist, buy the album, and peep some video below:
No comments:
Post a Comment