Stacie Rose Says "Consider Me."
It's Worthwhile Advice.
— (c) Bill Kopp
Thirty minutes into an interview that has covered the creative
process, motivation for songwriting, and the difference between recording
and performing live, Rutherford NJ-based singer songwriter Stacie Rose
turns the tables. She asks me a question: "So, do you like
the new record, by the way?" I'm so taken aback that I ask her to
repeat the question.
In an age where music is so often product, where market research dictates
the "artistic" direction in which an artist must go, when
performers are surrounded by sycophants who help them believe they can
do no wrong, it's refreshing almost beyond description to be presented
with such a question. Stacie Rose's second CD, the self-released Shadow
& Splendor makes little pretense to be something it is not.Stylistically
Rose is somewhat all over the map: a bit of C&W influence here, a
nod to current pop styles, some acoustic folk-rock there.
Yet throughout, her vision is unerring: musically the album goes everywhere
Stacie Rose wants it to, and nowhere she doesn't. As both artist and producer,
she has made decisions that she felt benefited the overall project. For
example, while she's a fine guitarist, she ceded duties to her bandmates
for the album, allowing her to concentrate on vocals and the bigger picture.
The album opener, Consider Me, is the most commercially viable
of the
fourteen tunes, and that's saying something. Rose allows the chorus lyrics
to skitter over the melody in a hypnotic, alluring melisma. And the sole
cover (a reinvention of U2's New Year's Day) can make one forget
the original for the moment. Okay kicks off perilously close to
teen pop, but then the curtain opens to reveal a catchy, fully formed
rock/pop song that ranks among the album's many highlights.
Yes, Stacie, I do like the album. And thank you for asking.
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