Monday, March 18, 2019

Stephanie Rose releases sophomore release


What an appropriate name for Stephanie Rose’s new release. The successor to her debut EP Go Where the Wind Takes You is a six song EP entitled Sprout and the plain-spoken brevity of the title is fitting for a sophomore effort expanding Rose’s songwriting vision with the same understated artistry that shapes her material. She starts off with the title song and, while the songwriting keys on a much different image, you can’t help but hear this song as a metaphor for her ballooning reputation as one of the most promising performers and writers today. The arrangement is quite a kicker to me – who would ever expect horns, but it punctuates the song really well. Rose puts some effective dynamics into “Rusted Love”, alternating from a full throated rock sweep into muted, yet simmering, passages, and she fills the lyric with a strong presence.  It’s quite a change from the first song, but entertained and engaged me from the beginning.


She really swept me up with the EP’s third song “Luxury”. It’s emblematic of her growing talents; Rose places herself in the middle of a life in dire straits yet finds redemption in the ties that sustain her subjects. It’s a song that could risk melodrama and cliché alike; Rose avoids that, however, thanks to how she grounds the song in so many telling details that flesh out the experience for listeners. It has an elegiac, slightly rueful air, but I never feel like the arrangement or lyric dragged me down emotionally. Instead, I finished this song admiring both her characters and Rose’s own considerable talents. She changes things up and goes in a much rootsier direction with the song “Old Soul”. It doesn’t get much more basic than a fleet footed shuffle tempo and acoustic guitars, but the song is a winner nonetheless. Much of the responsibility for its merits comes from the casual fluency of the musical performance and another engaging Rose vocal.

She goes back to the familiar ground of the EP’s second song for “Crushed”, but there’s a more even balance between her low key country influences and the rock side of her character. The light touches of reverb on the six string during the introduction give the song a slightly unsettled vibe she returns to later in the song, but Rose builds much of the track’s success off the same juxtaposition of dynamics that made “Rusted Love” so memorable. I think the chorus for the last song “Same Old Same Old” is one of the album’s best moments in this area and Rose, along with her fellow musicians, play the moment with just the right amount of skill. It’s mid tempo, but there’s still enough hints of a slow drag shuffle in the arrangement any listener will feel familiar with the setting from the start. Rose does an excellent job mixing the signature with the recognizable on Sprout and the EP’s six songs show tremendous growth from a first EP that still ranks among the best country releases in recent years.


Jason Hillenburg