Lucy Rose’s fourth album takes up where her stark but beautiful ‘Something’s Changing’ left off. Gone are the breezy pop folk songs of the early releases, and replaced by stripped back to the bone meditations on life and the living.
Having made her name with jaunty yet quite personal songs like ‘Shiver’ and ‘Night Bus’, This album puts its lyrics, front and centre. Speaking of her last album she said:
”If it can’t be a great song, just me and a guitar, or me and a piano, then it’s not going on. There are songs on my other records that don’t really stand up without everything else”
This quality control is evident throughout this quietly engrossing album.
Written and recorded following a particularly difficult time in the young singer’s life, the album reflects her journey, and at times, you worry for her.
“But I can’t help it when I’m so low Pretending like I have a purpose Well now that’s long gone Cause something’s missing when I’m solo, so low, solo, so low”
With so little instrumentation on the record, Lucy’s voice, is allowed to sparkle, and its true range and abilities to shine. The catchy sing-a-long nature of the early releases perhaps hid just how tender and awesome her voice is, until her sumptuous turn on ‘Floral Dresses’ on her last album. Her vocal delivery, and song writing reach new heights on cuts such as ‘Treat me like a woman’.
“And I’m afraid and I’m scared and I’m terrified that these things won’t ever change, for all of my life.”
There is little resolution in the songs, but the manner in which the questions are asked in lyrical inquiries such as ‘The confines of the world’ and ‘Save me from your kindness’ are all the more real for the search.
It is an intense record, full of peaks and troughs of the writer’s emotional journey through a hard time in their life, but so worth the climb. At times reminiscent of 1970s Joni Mitchell, or Laura Marling, this is an astute and mature piece of work that lingers long after that beautiful voice fades.
This is an album that’s unlikely to be a commercial success. But those who love smart intelligent challenging music, will love it and Lucy Rose for years to come.
‘No Words Left’ is released via Communion on 22nd March 2019.