Review Summary: A beautiful combination of musical intricacy and lyrical intimacy
Looking for Love is the second LP and latest release by Vermont-based singer-songwriter Roses. I literally heard this album today, so apologies in advance if this review is just a little choppy.
I'd like to discuss the instrumentality of this album first, before I actually delve into the lyrics. What really grabbed me about this album initially was the quality of the recordings. Roses seems to take a very lo-fi approach to his music. Artists who utilize lo-fi do so for many different reasons, whether by the desire to apply a lo-fi aesthetic, or the lack of high-quality recording equipment. The music itself, in my opinion, is actually quite enhanced enhanced with the lo-fi filtering and recording. It makes this album feel as if it was recorded several decades ago and, in my opinion, adds a certain ambiance and atmosphere to the slower tracks like "apathy at dawn" or "psalm/to a wild rose".
There's also a lot of diversity in the instrumentation. This album uses every sound from guitars and pianos to almost anything that can be done with the voice. I would say, however, that Roses' strength lies in his piano work. The piano bits of this album were both the most varied and the strongest, but it was a combination of all the instruments that really, in my opinion, made this album work.
This album reminds me of several other artists, and this leads back to one of the main reasons I enjoyed this album, its diversity. A good majority of the album reminds of releases by Sufjan Stevens; there are several points where I could see strong influences from albums like "Illinois" and "Michigan". (Where I really had this vibe most strongly was the song "candle song/a hot heart for chilling deeds".) There are other tracks too, however, that remind me of Sparks "Kimono my House" like "precious one". I could even see people who liked Alt-J's "An Awesome Wave" really enjoying Roses' latest release here. (I also had a very slight Panic! At the Disco feeling from "inquiries (famous last words)" but only at the more upbeat, ragtime-esque piano parts.)
Lyrically, I was also impressed by Roses' vocabulary. And when I say this, I don't even mean it in the sense of them being talented for their age. Roses' writes at a level that, while at times adolescent, has a strong and varied vocabulary. Going back to "candle song/a hot heart for chilling deeds", right from the first verse:
"solitude or sanctity shall not shatter your resolve
but avarice and abstinence are seizing all your love
may no one be your autocrat, may no one be so aft
to be your foe, or cause you woe, or to impose on your craft "
Or in songs like "inquires" there's just this really sharp wit in the lyrics:
"she said, 'i'll be impressed when i spot inconsistencies clearer'
i said, 'you should invest in a much more conspicuous mirror'"
But there are other times where Roses is just a young man writing a love song, in "violet sky (song of brothers)" for instance:
"maybe it's gonna be this time
maybe it's gonna be the next time, i don't know
but i know that we'll never walk alone
all the questions that we could ask
all the questions that we should've asked long ago
the questions that are written in stone "
Finally, I'd like to mention the layout of this album. What Roses seems to have done here is to, at times, have strung several short songs into 1 long song. This is probably used best in the album's final song, "november 11/midday/étude". Clearly 3 different songs, but put onto 1 track altogether for a really great back-to-back effect.
Overall, Roses' latest release is a solid work both in terms of lyrics as well as music, and I'm excited to see how he can improve in future releases.
