Skip to main content

Guest Review: Bowden On Rose



Eyewear's music critic Lydia Bowden on Lucy Rose's album Like I Used To

I first heard of Lucy Rose whilst walking past my local record store. My friend pointed to a poster in the window and asked me if I knew of her; I didn’t. I promised myself that I would go home and search for her on YouTube; I never did. 

Lucy Rose Looking Happy

 So, a week later I end up hearing a folky, young sounding female voice coming at me from the radio one morning, and I just want to stop everything I am doing to listen. ‘Bikes’ is playing, and being one of her more upbeat songs from her first album ‘Like I Used To’, it still sounds soft and peaceful and good. Innocent. This music sets you into some kind of trance, every song with its hypnotising speedy guitar riffs, and the accompanying husky voice of Lucy Rose. Sometimes, it’s hard to even notice any music at all, it’s just her voice speaking to you her troubles and opinions on everyone and everything in the world.

‘Lines’ for example, starts with the line ‘If you can see through it all/ If you can see that I’m here/ Did the moment pass you by’, with little to no sound backing her voice. This way, you can really hear what she is pissed off about. ‘Red Face’, ‘Middle of the Bed’ and ‘Shiver’ are also the product of some kind of life dilemma. 

Towards the middle of the album, it’s as though it’s progressed, and there’s ballsy ideas coming from the songs. You can see it in the song titles. Compared to the beginning few songs, they develop into ‘Don’t You Worry’, ‘Be Alright’ and ‘Little Brave’. However, the songs don’t get anymore upbeat, they still keep their relaxing sweetness.

I do love Lucy Rose. I can listen to her, curled up in a ball on my bed with a cup of tea, all through winter. But sometimes you need something to get you out of bed, and this album won’t do that so don’t expect to be too uplifted by the album other than ‘Bikes’. However, this album is what it is. What you see is what you get, quite literally- Lucy Rose is lying on her back in the middle of a field, alone, probably sad. Saying that, there is a need for albums like this, like how Bruno Mars can’t stop crying and threatening to kill himself. This is a little softer, less suicidal, I guess.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

IQ AND THE POETS - ARE YOU SMART?

When you open your mouth to speak, are you smart?  A funny question from a great song, but also, a good one, when it comes to poets, and poetry. We tend to have a very ambiguous view of intelligence in poetry, one that I'd say is dysfunctional.  Basically, it goes like this: once you are safely dead, it no longer matters how smart you were.  For instance, Auden was smarter than Yeats , but most would still say Yeats is the finer poet; Eliot is clearly highly intelligent, but how much of Larkin 's work required a high IQ?  Meanwhile, poets while alive tend to be celebrated if they are deemed intelligent: Anne Carson, Geoffrey Hill , and Jorie Graham , are all, clearly, very intelligent people, aside from their work as poets.  But who reads Marianne Moore now, or Robert Lowell , smart poets? Or, Pound ?  How smart could Pound be with his madcap views? Less intelligent poets are often more popular.  John Betjeman was not a very smart poet, per se....
3 comments
Read more

"I have crossed oceans of time to find you..."

In terms of great films about, and of, love, we have Vertigo, In The Mood for Love , and Casablanca , Doctor Zhivago , An Officer and a Gentleman , at the apex; as well as odder, more troubling versions, such as Sophie's Choice and  Silence of the Lambs .  I think my favourite remains Bram Stoker's Dracula , with the great immortal line "I have crossed oceans of time to find you...".
1 comment
Read more

THE SWIFT REPORT 2023

I am writing this post without much enthusiasm, but with a sense of duty. This blog will be 20 years old soon, and though I rarely post here anymore, I owe it some attention. Of course in 2023, "Swift" now means one thing only, Taylor Swift, the billionaire musician. Gone are the days when I was asked if I was related to Jonathan Swift. The pre-eminent cultural Swift is now alive and TIME PERSON OF THE YEAR. There is no point in belabouring the obvious with delay: 2023 was a low-point in the low annals of human history - war, invasion, murder, in too many nations. Hate, division, the collapse of what truth is, exacerbated by advances in AI that may or may not prove apocalyptic, while global warming still seems to threaten the near-future safety of humanity. It's been deeply depressing. The world lost some wonderful poets, actors, musicians, and writers this year, as it often does. Two people I knew and admired greatly, Ian Ferrier and Kevin Higgins, poets and organise...
1 comment
Read more