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Feb 23, 2018 Caroline Rose By Lee Adcock

What do you do when you realize you’ve been stuck in a charade? When Caroline Rose felt the squeeze from her dusty rockabilly outfit, she ditched the lacey poetry and embraced her Cadillac red swagger. Cue LONER, a messy confetti party that celebrates womanhood from outside those stupidly outdated paradigms that box in women—and YOU BET it’s a hoot. Her devious and prismatic Farifsa steals the show: just dig that slick Rihanna-esque mutha “Jeannie Becomes a Mom,” or the Katy Perry melodrama of “Animal,” or the perversely rump-shaking ode to objectification “Bikini.” Synths, in general, just sound great on LONER—”­Cry!,” a cheeky take on how society belittles beleaguered chicks, shines with so much Santigold sheen that I nearly cry every time. God.

But, more importantly, LONER brings out a no-holds-barred honesty that could’ve never fit in Rose’s last (and far more conservative) incarnation. Both the wistful “More of the Same” and the Kate Bush delicacy “Getting to Me” express just the sort of hardened cynicism that struggling twenty-somethings can relate to. “To Die Today” even dives deep into love-addled depression with a velvet throb that evokes Portishead.

Even then, though, this new Rose is a joy to behold, as the utterly hilarious “Soul No. 5” proves. With a big Coney Island rework of “I Got Soul,” she erases the shorn romance of the past and struts her stuff like a regular Don Juan; the video ramps up the irrelevance, as she shows off her crocs and cruises around with her gal pals. “I like to hit ‘em and quit ‘em, that’s just my style,” Rose brags, and you better believe it’s true—LONER whacks the listener swiftly upside the head with our red-clad protagonist’s winning charisma, leaving ya dizzy and begging for more. (www.carolinerosemusic.com)

Author rating: 8.5/10