Walking through an open door is easy, but which door to walk through, when so many are on offer. Of course, I’m using this as a reference for the music industry and here I have been listening to the new album by Southend-on-Sea-born Rosalie Cunningham. It was not her first dip into the sometimes chilly pool of music, having earlier played with Theoretical Girl, written with Ipso Facto, and Purson, and worked with Last Shadow Puppets and Magazine, on their 2009 reunion tour. So with these safely listed on your CV, she released her eponymous debut long player in 2019 and Two Piece Puzzle in 2022.
Rosalie is now well placed to present her new project titled To Shoot Another Day, which was released on the 1st of November and what a project to present. What might strike you when you go through this first door – or track on the album – could be a James Bond flick. Rosalie, a multi-instrumentalist, can project the idea of any Bond through her songwriting and this is made clear from the lyric “…I wear a briefcase and tie, and I feel like a spy…”. But it’s not just the ability to convey this, when using guitar, or piano, that strikes home. Continuing the album, ‘Timothy Martin’s Conditioning School’, carries the theme of songs filled with 3-dimensional colour and, this time, conjures images of late sixties hedonistic excess. I feel all who encounter this song may find themselves heading down a not-very-deep rabbit hole when investigating ‘Timothy Martin’s Conditioning School’, as I feel these may be found on many high streets across the UK. ‘
Heavy Pencil’, the next track, follows the theme on which we have been driving, complete with psychedelic flute, guitar and drum, before Rosalie’s vocal is brought in. This is a wild ride, filled with psychedelic colour and pace, and its video fits with the image I had created in my mind. ‘Good To Be Damned’ , the next on the roster, is a song that goes from trip to a sweet comedown, as Rosalie paints pictures with words, or as she puts it “… tongue-tied, tubes tied, not the way that I planned it, heaven knows how it landed, in the company of a demon man, but it feels good to be damned…”, an impressive number and you will have this brain worm burrowing into your soul. Next comes ‘In The Shade Of The Shadows’ and it is worth taking time to examine what has gone before, but this time with a bluesy tone and swing. This general feel is now brought into ‘The Smut Peddler’, a track illustrated as a musical segue between sides on an LP and musically heads toward those crossroads on which it is said bluesman Robert Johnson sold his soul, but this time with an injection of 70s rock-music applied.
Leading toward what speaks a thousand words, from just its title is ‘Denim Eyes’. With the rock music toned down, it still incorporates a heavy dose of fretboard work, over which Rosalie spins a tale of eyes into which the onlooker might dive. Returning to the theme that introduced the album, comes ‘Spook Racket’, the heartbeat of this song offered by the drums, with the blood in its veins, provided by the guitarist in the searing solos. This thought had crossed my mind as I listened to the album, but this is progressive rock for the 21st century, with fresh melodies and rhythms, overseen by its new queen of the genre. Not standing still, next can be heard an agreeable waltz projected in ‘Stepped Out Of Time’ and unlike that we have heard so far, Rosalie guides us through a number that crosses the floor, as my mind sees couples dancing in time, with this most accessible of numbers performing to all generations. If the marketing people work their magic, consider this perfect for a turn around the Strictly dancefloor. But if you had thought we had descended to a stable beat, than ‘Return Of The Ellington’ tells us we have not, as prog-rock brings the audience to one that would not be unfamiliar to them:
It’s like a female fronted Jethro Tull. But with the faster pace familiar to Rosalie Cunningham, now turned up to eleven. ‘Home’ is a perfect closer with which to leave the album. Sweet vocals offered up by Rosalie, remind us that “Home where the heart can break in private, where dreams left on the pillow won’t be laughed at, home is patchouli and potatoes, home is a ripple going around and around, home is it’s echos decorating the walls and home is where I like to be found…”, the vocalist sliding her vocals through the verses, in the most delightful manner.
In essence, this album contains textures that speak of Rosalie’s former musical journeys. Those of the goth-inflected Iso Facto and progressive timbre and melodrama of Purson. This is an album I would deem to be an obvious evolution from their earlier works, and certainly had me waking with melodies running through my thinking until past breakfast. With a UK and European tour scheduled, following the release of this album, Rosalie’s future looks decidedly bright.
